


Seduction

by breathxx, Sarahnoia



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Abduction, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Violence, Character Turned Into Vampire, Drama, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Family, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Torture, Love, M/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s), Mystery, Swearing, Torture, Vampire Politics, Vampire Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-08-23 19:49:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 37,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8340418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breathxx/pseuds/breathxx, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarahnoia/pseuds/Sarahnoia
Summary: What if everything you have believed in is suddenly changing? What if everything is changing just because of him? Fernando has to make his decision, but he has to remember that Sergio is not the person he pretends to be. Regardless of his decision, he cannot forget that those people are dangerous. They always get what they want ... and at the moment it's him they want.





	1. Desire

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Seduction](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/236722) by breathxx. 



> Hey everyone! This fanfiction is a translation of the amazing fanfic "Seduction", which was written by the exceptionally talented breathxx. The original story is written in German and I will try my best to translate it into English, because it's honestly one of the greatest stories I've ever read (and I've read quite a lot). 
> 
> Thank you breathxx for allowing me to translate your wonderful story! The whole story was her idea and she wrote it - I am only translating it, so all credit goes to her. Please address comments about the story to her :) ... if you want to point out mistakes or if you have positive/negative comments concerning my English, you are welcome to do that, but please give constructive feedback. English is not my native language, so I am aware that there will be mistakes - if you notice something that irritates you a lot/that is completely wrong, please point it out!
> 
> The story and most of its chapters are very long, so it will take some time until I will have finished translating each chapter. I am also doing my internship semester at university, so I don't have a lot of time - please keep that in mind :)
> 
>  
> 
> Breathxx’s disclaimer:  
> At the beginning, I want to say that I don’t want to harm anybody with this story, and that the events in the story are completely fictional events that have never taken place in real life. I don’t own the brand “Real Madrid” and/or all other mentioned clubs and players. Also, I don’t mean to offend any of the mentioned people, like FIFA officials etc., or impute them with anything – this is a fanfiction and everything is a product of my imagination. In real life, everything is, of course, completely different or does not exist.

**Sergio’s POV**

I grasped Guti’s arm and nearly crushed it when he came through the door. “There he is!“ I whispered, but the blonde Spaniard next to me only rolled his eyes in annoyance. “I know, Gitano. I can smell him from where I’m standing,” he replied without a hint of emotion in his voice. “Let go of my arm now!” “Sorry,” I murmured, still keeping an iron grip on his forearm.

Guti and I had been watching the people in the club for the whole evening and the only reason for that was _him._ I met him about a week ago – okay, more like discovered him – and since that day I couldn’t help but – though it sounds terribly cheesy – think about him all the time. All I wanted was to find out more about him. “This guy looks incredibly young,” Guti’s amused voice exclaimed next to me. I rolled my eyes at this. “So?“

“So? Whatever you are planning to do with him is almost bordering on child abuse.” He grinned and I shot him a dark look before searching for that guy once again. “I won’t hurt him,” I muttered, ignoring Guti’s laugh. “Alright, I’ll remind you of that when you are sucking his blood.” Now I turned in his direction and if looks could kill, he would have dropped dead by now – well, if he wasn’t already dead.

“I. Said. That. I. Will. Not. Hurt. Him,“ I growled lowly, prompting José to raise his arms in defense. “All right, I got it, but sooner or later that’s exactly what will happen if you don’t stop stalking him like that and you know it as well as I do.” Couldn’t he keep his mouth shut for once? Wordlessly I brought my attention back to that guy and gulped as he incidentally looked in my direction.

Fuck, Guti was right. He really looked terribly young along with those brown eyes of his that made him look so innocent. I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to calm down again. It didn’t have the desired effect, though. In an instant, his smell was everywhere and I gulped when I noticed that I hadn’t eaten in a while. “I’ll just go get some fresh air and, you know...,” I murmured. After quickly getting up, I scrambled to the entrance. Guti threw me worried glances. Suddenly, he was right next to me.

“Iker will kill me if I let you run around alone in the state you are in right now,” he said in amusement and placed his cool hand on my shoulder – it tingled and I felt myself calming down in an instant. Guti and his damn ability! “Thanks,” I murmured and José grinned. “Anytime, Gitano.“ He put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him in a kind of semi-hug.

Immediately, Guti’s particular smell filled the air and I calmed down once again. José always smelled a bit like Raúl, sex and blood. Most notably, he possessed his own unique smell. “For now we’ll go eat something and then we’ll take care of El Niño, okay?” Guti’s blue eyes held a questioning look and I simply nodded. “Thank you.”

 

**Fernando’s POV**

“Seriously Juan, I'm not in the mood to go anywhere today,” I murmured and leaned against the bar, beer bottle in hand. “Today’s shift was god-awful and I still need to get groceries. My fridge is empty. I'm just looking forward to be home and lie down in my bed.” “Oh come on, Nando, you are such a drag.” Juan pouted at me and I rolled my eyes. “Sorry, but I just don’t feel like partying today, okay?”

My gaze wandered through the club, stopping at a young man who was looking in my direction as well. He had short brown-blond hair, a beard and dark-brown eyes. He was also tall and seemed quite muscular. He was wearing tight-fitting black pants and a tight-fitting white t-shirt. Countless tattoos adorned his arms. Holy shit, he really looked quite handsome. We stared at each other for a few seconds until he averted his gaze. Juan chose this moment to elbow me in the side.

“How long are you going to undress that guy with your eyes?” he asked me with a grin and I shot him an annoyed glance. “Ha ha, very funny,” I grumbled, downing the beer bottle and putting it on the top of the bar. “I’m out of here. I’ll see you tomorrow at work. I have the morning shift, but I am sure that Mourinho has given Costa the day off and I’ll have to stay till evening again,” I muttered and Juan sighed deeply.

“You are a hopeless case, Fernando Torres, and I mean it. Alright, go buy groceries and go to bed or whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He winked at me, pulling me into a short friendly hug and vanished in the mass of people shortly after. I stared after him for a moment and shook my head, leaving the club afterwards. Thank god for the existence of those 24-hour-shops where you could even get groceries at two in the morning.

I felt awfully tired, but it seemed that I wouldn’t get more than five hours of sleep. My shift was starting at eight, which meant that I had to get up at seven or I would be late. Mourinho would sack me without a second thought if I was late. In the meantime, I had arrived at the super market and was hurriedly searching for something edible: bread, pasta and some kind of ready-made sauce. I didn’t particularly care as long as I had some kind of food at home. Searching for the milk, I almost ran around the next corner – I just wanted to go home.

Apparently, I was moving a bit too fast as I bumped straight into a rather muscular chest, staggering back a few steps. “Sorry,” I muttered. Looking up, I stopped dead in my tracks. The guy from the club who had been staring at me so intently was standing right in front of me. His brown eyes looked me over and a wide smile spread across his lips – and, oh God, I was forgetting how to breathe.

“Hey, don’t we know each other?” he asked in an amused tone and I gulped. My throat felt really dry all of a sudden. “I...uh...,” I stammered, inwardly cursing myself. I couldn’t take his gaze. It was repeatedly giving me goose bumps all over, which wasn’t helpful at all. His smile got even wider if this was even possible and he offered me his hand to shake. I noticed a silver ring and some tattoos. He was quite tanned. _Madre mía_ , this guy was hot as hell – and he knew it.

“I’m Sergio,” the guy – Sergio – added and I hesitantly took his hand. “Sergio Ramos, to be precise. What about you?” “Fernando,“ I murmured and flinched when his hand met mine. “Torres.” “Fernando Torres,” Sergio repeated quietly and I couldn’t help but like the sound of him saying my name. “My pleasure, Fernando. What are you doing at a supermarket at this time of night? Why aren’t you at the club anymore?” He grinned at me, brown eyes twinkling with curiosity and I couldn’t help but grin back at him.

“Okay, first things first, please call me Nando, please. Secondly, I didn’t feel like partying, and I still had to get some groceries because I have to be up early tomorrow. What are you doing here? Why aren’t you at the club anymore?” Somehow I couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been following me, even if this was complete nonsense. Why would he do that? Sergio smiled as if he had guessed my thoughts while playing with the ring on his finger. “My friend didn’t feel so well and he wanted to go home. I just came in here to buy a bottle of water. He is waiting in the car right now.”

He winked at me and I couldn’t prevent the blush creeping up my cheeks. He had been at the club with a friend? I hadn’t even noticed, but we had only looked at each other for about five seconds – and I had been too distracted by his eyes anyways. “Well, I have to go now. I’ll see you around, Nando.” Sergio smiled warmly at me once again and pulled me into a short but firm hug. Then he was gone and my bewildered eyes followed him. My cheek was tingling pleasantly where his lips had met my skin.

What had just happened? And since when did I tell my name to any stranger that came along? Shaking my head at myself, I marched up to the checkout counter while desperately trying to suppress any thoughts of Sergio Ramos. That was totally crazy! Deep in thoughts, I handed my money to the bored-looking cashier, bagged my stuff, nearly forgot my change, and made my way home. Only when I arrived at home did I notice that I had forgotten the milk, and I let myself fall onto the couch in annoyance. Since when could some random guy rattle me like that?

 

**Sergio’s POV**

“Satisfied?” Guti darted me a quick glance while pulling into the driveway and parking his car. I nodded, my thoughts still with Nando. That encounter at the supermarket had been interesting. “What did he say?” “He… his name is Fernando Torres. I don’t know anything else yet.“ I sighed and followed Guti inside the house. “That’s it? A name and… that’s it? All this hassle for just a name?!” José was looking at me incredulously and I rolled my eyes at him before walking towards the kitchen. “We... I don’t know; the situation was strange, but we’ll be able to find him anywhere now and you know it,” I murmured, entering the kitchen.

I was careful not to reveal the fact that I had had to muster every last bit of self-control I possessed to not kill him right there on the spot. Cris and Xabi, both sitting at the kitchen table and nursing a glass of blood, looked up. The Portuguese was smiling at me while Xabi stood up to get two glasses for us – Guti had followed me to the kitchen. “So, have you met your guy again, Sese?” Cris asked me with an amused undertone and I threw him an annoyed look before raising my glass to my lips.

“Yes, I have,” I answered before turning to the Basque sitting next to me. “Xabi, can you find out as much as possible about a certain Fernando Torres? He is about twenty to thirty years old and-“ “Thirty? Are you kidding me? Gitano, the guy looks like he is nineteen or twenty,” Guti interrupted with an incredulous look on his face. “He is still almost a child!” “Shut up, José,” Xabi calmly retorted before I even had the chance to, looking at me afterwards. “I’ll see what I can do, but it may take some time. Madrid is still a megacity.” “Of course, thank you.” I briefly smiled at him before running a hand through my hair.

Fernando had been nervous – you didn’t need Guti’s ability to feel that. He must have surely considered me quite the stalker after seeing me. His distrust hadn’t come as a surprise to me. “Where is Raúl?” Guti asked in this moment, letting his gaze roam through the kitchen in search of him. “He is out hunting with Fábio, Karim, Marcelo and Iker,” the Portuguese answered, standing up. “They should be back soon, though.”

Now I knew why it was this quiet and why Cris was sitting in the kitchen alone with Xabi. “Ángel and Luka are upstairs and Álvaro is still at the club,” Cris added before downing his glass and walking in the direction of the stairs. “Oh, and Sese? Iker wants to talk to you later, but I don’t know what it is that he wants!” he yelled at me over his shoulders while shooting a quick smile at the both of us before leaving the kitchen, taking his glass with him.

“What have you done now to make Iker want to talk to you, Gitano, hmm?” José asked me with a chuckle and I rolled my eyes at him. “Nothing. Maybe...,” it is because of Fernando. I finished the sentence in my head, taking another sip of my glass. Iker was my best friend and something like a big brother to me. I would be surprised if he didn’t already know.

“But seriously Sergio, you do know that this is not possible, right?“ All of a sudden, Guti was looking at me with a serious expression and I had to gulp. “Yeah, well...,” At this moment, Iker entered the kitchen and I stopped talking. I would have to talk about this with him as well anyways, and I wouldn’t be able to take talking to Guti _and_ Iker as this would be way too exhausting. “Stop staring at me,” I murmured quietly, feeling the stern gaze of our leader on my back. Iker sighed before plopping down the bench.

“Go away José, Raúl is back,” he said to Guti without turning to look at the blonde Spaniard – his gaze was still focused on me. Guti mumbled to himself but still obeyed. As he vanished from the room, I could feel Iker’s hand on my shoulder. “So, Fernando Torres?” he asked with a small grin playing around the corners of his mouth. “How...Cris!” Slightly annoyed, I rolled my eyes while Iker was laughing. Couldn’t the Portuguese just fuck Fábio and keep his mouth shut?

“Please, you didn’t really think that this would stay a secret for long in this house, did you?” he asked me with amusement in his voice and I huffed in contempt. “No, but I hoped that I would be able to keep it to myself for as long as possible.” Iker laughed quietly before turning serious once again. “He is human.” I knew that this hadn’t been a question but an observation, so I decided to remain silent; denying it would be futile anyway. “Sese, what are you planning on doing with him?”

I knew that Iker wanted me to say that I would just fuck him once and suck his blood afterwards, but I would never be able to do that. Well, okay, maybe I would, but I would never kill him or hurt him in any other way. “Nothing,” I mumbled and Iker looked at me skeptically. “Nothing? All this time, you went to the club hoping to see him for ‘nothing’? You followed him to the supermarket and told Xabi to look him up for nothing?” I groaned in frustration, running my hand through my hair. “Gods, Iker, I don’t even know what is going to happen myself, okay?” I spat, jumping to my feet.

I was among the very few people who could get away with being this disrespectful to Iker. I shot him an annoyed glance. “I’ll be out with Ángel and Álvaro,” I grumbled before fleeing from the kitchen, making my way upstairs. In the meantime, Álvaro had come back from the club and both of them, Ángel and himself, agreed to go hunting with me. Distraction, I desperately needed distraction.

 

**Fernando’s POV**

I hated alarm clocks, especially if I hadn’t slept that long. I groaned once and rolled over in my bed before pushing a part of the blanket off my face. Immediately, I grimaced as I became aware of the bright rays of the sun and got up, yawning. It was way too early and I walked into my small kitchen on my bare feet, still feeling tired. I drank a cup of coffee, showered, dressed and went to work – this had become my daily routine by now. It was still cold outside and I felt glad that the bar, which served as a cafe by day, wasn’t that far away.

“Good morning,” I murmured while walking through the entrance. Mourinho didn’t even look up. Shrugging, I went to our lunch room and got dressed for work. Then I started preparing sandwiches. My boss ignoring me was better than having my head bitten off if something wasn’t done to his satisfaction. José Mourinho, a Portuguese around fifty years of age, was my boss, and I felt no sympathy or whatsoever towards him. He had only hired me because Costa couldn’t manage all the work on his own. Juan, well, he was a barkeeper, not a waiter.

While I was putting the dishes of the customer I had just served into the dishwasher, Mourinho appeared in the doorway. “A guest has just come in. I even heard the door in my office, so get your ass out there,” he droned, glaring at me. “I am not paying you for just standing around in the kitchen all day long.” Taking a deep breath, I tried to suppress a flippant remark and left my boss standing in the kitchen without a word. Idiot, I could just leave the dirty dishes on the counters instead of putting them away. Cursing Mourinho in my head, I looked up, searching for the guest my boss had pointed out.

As I recognized him, my breathing stopped and I had to close my eyes for a second. No, that couldn’t be true. What was _he_ doing here? I took another deep breath and opened my eyes once again before walking over to him. “Sergio? What are you doing here?” Sergio lifted his head in surprise and my breath caught once again. "Nando?" How someone could manage to look this good was beyond me. He was wearing a black t-shirt with some kind of print on the front, black training pants and a red cap. His eyes were so dark that it was nearly impossible to see his pupils and although he seemed pretty exhausted, he still managed to look somewhat handsome.

“I... work here,” I said slowly as I noticed that he was still waiting for an answer to his question while looking at me questioningly for over a minute now. I had been staring at him – how embarrassing! I tore my eyes away from him and blushed slightly because he had a knowing grin on his face. “Interesting...,” Still grinning, Sergio raised his eyebrows and my face just turned an even deeper shade of red. Why on earth did I have to be so shy around this guy? He was a normal guy, like Juan or Costa. There was absolutely no reason to panic.

“Is your friend okay now?” I asked in order to break the silence, causing Sergio to look confused for a moment. “Friend?” “Yes he... tonight you said that he wasn’t feeling well and that you had left because of that.” I was frowning while Sergio seemed to get what I was talking about because his face lit up and he nodded. “Oh, yeah. I took him home. He should be better by now, but, well, I can’t say for sure since I haven’t seen him today.” He smiled and I couldn’t stop smiling back at him.

“Alright; so, what would you like to order?” I asked, feeling Mourinho’s gaze on my back. Throwing a quick glance over my shoulder, I spotted my boss standing in the kitchen’s doorway, watching us with narrow eyes. No surprise there. Sergio, whose gaze had followed mine, frowned as well. „Who’s that?“ “Mourinho, my boss,“ I sighed, pulling a small notebook from my pants pocket. “He is probably going to kill me if I’m not back in the kitchen within a minute, so...,” I shot Sergio a meaningful glance, making him grin in return.

“Alright, I understand. Some water, please,” he replied. I nodded. “Okay.” Just as I was about to go, his hand wrapped around my wrist, holding me back. “Wait, I-“ I flinched as I felt the touch of his hand. He let go of it instantly. “Sorry,” Sergio murmured. After recovering from the brief shock, I smiled at him. “It’s okay.” His hand had been pleasantly warm and the skin where he had touched me was also tingling pleasantly.

“I just wanted to give you my number, so that we can meet without your boss breathing down our necks.” He winked at me and I involuntarily smiled. “Alright, I’m sure this would be … lovely.” “Great.“ Sergio scribbled something on a napkin with the pen I had given to him. After having finished, he gave it to me. “Don’t lose it,” he warned me, brown eyes glinting. I nodded and put the napkin in my pocket. “Never.”

“Torres! I am paying you to work, not to flirt with my customers!” Mourinho suddenly barked across the café, making me flinch. I shot Sergio, who was frowning once again, an apologetic glance and hurried back to the kitchen to get his water. This would be a long day, a painfully long day. Knowing Mourinho, I steeled myself for having to do the night shift as well.


	2. Anger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter contains a lot of blood and ... violence (?) a bit further down. If you want to skip this part then don't read the scene where Iker and Sergio are at the club.

**Sergio’s POV**

As soon as Nando had disappeared inside the kitchen, I hurriedly left this place. That just couldn’t be true! Next time I saw him, I’d have to explain to him why I had just left without a word, but at that moment, I had more important things to worry about. Using my superhuman speed, I arrived at the house a few minutes later. I stormed into the library, not bothering to knock.

Iker, who had been in a conversation with Raúl, looked up, frowning. Guti was sitting next to his boyfriend, playing around with his mobile phone. Fábio and Cris were sitting next to each other on a couch slightly away from the others, and Xabi was, as it seemed, holding a glass full of blood whiskey in his hand, from which he took small sips every now and then. “Sergio, could you-“ Iker started but I interrupted him almost instantly.

“Guess who is back?” I cut in and Raúl raised his eyebrows. “I don’t know? Nobody in this room is psychic, Sese.” Okay, this would probably get interesting now. “Mourinho,” I calmly stated, causing Xabi to choke on his whiskey. Cris’ face turned dark in an instant, and he transferred all his attention from Fábio to me. Raúl’s eyebrows had crept even further up his forehead, while Iker looked a little shocked. Only Guti didn’t seem fazed at all. He just leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “How do you know that it was him?” he calmly asked and I had to roll my eyes. “Maybe because I’ve seen him?”

“Impossible, nobody has seen him for centuries,“ Iker supplied. “Where have you been anyway?” I inaudibly sighed before starting to tell my story. “As you know, Xabi has given me the address of the café, or bar if you want to call it like that, where Fernando works. Well... I went there to visit him, and I found out – by chance – that Mourinho is his boss.” “Did you at least tear the bastard’s heart out?” Cris growled, causing Fábio to put a calming hand on his shoulder. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Guti throwing a questioning glance in Iker’s direction, but my best friend just slightly shook his head. Nobody was better at calming down Cris than Fábio. Even Guti’s abilities couldn’t match up with him when it came to Cris.

Well, Cris did indeed have lots of reasons to be pissed at Mourinho. Mourinho was his _creator_ , if you could call it like that, and the whole process hadn’t been a good experience for Cris. Mourinho had bitten Cris before leaving him to fend for himself on purpose so that he could find out how long young and inexperienced vampires could survive on their own. It was supposed to be some kind of experiment. Mourinho, however, had been unlucky because Cris was extremely tenacious and strong. He managed to survive somehow. It was Iker who found him and took him to us. He saved Cris’ life, and the Portuguese was so thankful that he decided to stay. A few years later he met Fábio and turned him into a vampire. Theoretically speaking, everything seemed to go well for Cris now, yet it wasn’t.

Cris could never forgive Mourinho for snatching him from this life just because, separating him from his family, his friends and his future. We all understood why he felt this way. Although Iker had confronted the older Portuguese, it didn’t make much of a difference. Mourinho vanished and we hadn’t seen him for centuries. Well, until about half an hour ago, when he suddenly appeared at Nando’s workplace – in the middle of Madrid. Our relationship was still very ... strained, and Cris still desired to kill Mourinho.

“Did he see you?” Xabi now asked me and I had to nod. Iker sighed audibly, closing his eyes for a moment. “Did he recognize you?” he calmly asked and I shrugged. “I don’t know but I guess not.” The last time we saw each other my hair was long, and I was wearing totally different clothes after all. Maybe he had seen me for about thirty seconds at the cafe – it should be impossible to recognize someone like that. Well, it should be. After all, he was still a vampire and you couldn’t be completely sure.

“Mourinho in Madrid... I can’t believe it,” Raúl whispered, being pulled even closer into Guti’s chest. “He even owns a bar?! I’m unable to grasp this, he must be planning something.” “I think so as well,” Iker added with a frown. “About Fernando… did he have bite marks or something like that?“ he suddenly asked me. I thought about it before shaking my head. “No, there was nothing. That was the first thing I checked after seeing Mourinho standing in the doorway, but neither his neck, nor his arms had any bite marks,” I answered while trying to suppress the anger I felt when thinking about Mourinho using Nando as a blood donor. Being angry wouldn’t help anyone at the moment.

“That’s strange...,” Xabi murmured and I sighed. “What are we going to do now?” I asked, plopping down next to Iker on the couch. “You will stay in contact with Fernando and, at the same time, you will try to find out some things about Mourinho, understood?” Iker was looking at me intently and I nodded. I was planning to spend more time with Nando anyway, and if I could find out a thing or two about Mourinho’s reasons for being in Madrid, it would be even better. “Fábio, Xabi, go and tell the others, would you? They should be more careful when they go hunting. Also, you will oversee the club business this evening, as Cris, Raúl, Guti, Sese and I won’t be there. I can’t wait to know what Xavi, Villa and the others are going to say when they hear about this.” With a grim expression on his face, Iker grabbed Xabi’s glass and downed the whole thing before disappearing from the library.

We had stared after him in confusion until Fábio kissed Cris once again before following Iker along with Xabi. Iker was the president of the Vampire Council in Spain. Guti, Raúl and I were members of the council because we were among the oldest vampires of the country. Cris, who was Portuguese, wasn’t a member, but he always accompanied us as Iker’s _bodyguard_. Since Iker had saved his life, Cris was so thankful that he would do anything for him. We owned our own club so that we would be able to earn money and get blood without being noticed. I often helped out Guti behind the bar if I was bored. Normally, Iker and Jóse managed the club, but since none of us were here today, Fábio and Xabi would be doing that.

“And what are we going to do all day?” I asked and plunked down onto the couch between Guti and Raúl. Cris had followed Iker. “For the love of God, Sergio, you are over 400 years old: it shouldn’t be a problem for you to keep yourself busy for a few hours,” Raúl spat and I had to grin. “I could, but I don’t want to.” “Go and annoy one of the young ones,” Guti murmured, putting his head on Raúl’s shoulder. With the term _young ones_ he meant Marcelo, Ángel and Luka – all of them were under 250 years of age. “Go and train with them,” Guti added and sighed as Raúl ran his fingers through his hair. “Why? I have my abilities down cold.“ I raised my eyebrows, and Raul’s brown eyes threw me a dark look. “Sergio...,”he threatened while I jumped off the couch. “Alright, alright, I’ll leave you and you can fuck all you want. I’ll see you in the evening.”

I winked at them and avoided the pillow Raúl threw at me. I still heard Guti’s laugh when I closed the door behind me. Sighing quietly, I started to walk through the house to see if I could find anyone. In the kitchen, I ran into Álvaro and Fábio. Both looked as bored as I was feeling. “Did Guti and Raúl throw you out?” The Portuguese grinned knowingly and I rolled my eyes at him. “It’s not like they don’t have any time for each other,” I muttered and nodded in the direction of the door. “Do you care for some training?” Álvaro nodded. “Sure. Should I go and get Ángel and Karim?“ he asked and I nodded. “Sure. Luka and Marcelo can also join us if they are bored.” Álvie nodded before disappearing. Fábio and I lead the way.

Luka and Marcelo were the only ones among us that didn’t possess any special abilities – other than the unnatural strength, speed and the good looks. Nobody knew why, though. Iker, who had turned Luka, and Guti, who had bitten Marcelo, had spent some years doing research on this topic, but they didn’t come to a conclusion. Fábio and I entered our massive garden, and almost instantly, small flames started licking along my right arm. I had missed this. Iker and Guti had forbidden me from playing with fire inside the house. It apparently was too dangerous and whatnot. They only did that because I had torched something in the past. I mean, this could have happened to anybody, right?!

Fábio was watching me and grinned. “Are you impressed, Coentrão?” I asked him with a challenge in my voice, but the Portuguese only shook his head – unimpressed. “Not really.” „Pff.“ I rolled my eyes and in this moment, Álvaro returned with Karim and Ángel in tow. “What about Marcelo and Luka?“ I asked with a frown on my face, making Álvie sigh in annoyance. “They said, I quote,: ‘They have no desire to get nearly killed by my idiotic gaze almost every single day.’” Fábio and I had to laugh while Karim and Ángel only grinned, and Álvaro rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, who wants to start?” he asked and I shrugged. “I don’t care.” “That’s a lie,” Karim said with a chuckle and sighed. Karim’s ability allowed him to feel if somebody was lying or telling the truth – it was impossible to lie when he was around. “Fine, I want to start,” I muttered and immediately, I was engulfed in warm flames. Normal vampires died when in contact with fire, but I was somehow immune to that. In medieval times, I was having lots of fun with this during the witch trials. Smirking, I shot my flames at Karim, who barely managed to avoid them. “Sese!” he hissed and I burst out laughing before hiding behind some trees.

“Idiot,” Álvaro mumbled before suddenly looking Ángel straight in the eye, causing the Argentine to cry out in pain. “Why is it always me?” he gasped as he finally managed to look away. Álvie grinned. “Why not?” Rolling his eyes, Fábio put a soothing hand on Ángel’s shoulder, whose facial expression changed almost immediately. Fábio’s special ability allowed him to heal any kind of injury, even very serious ones. It didn’t matter if the person to be healed was human or a vampire. Still, he couldn’t save people from certain death, but I knew that he was able to convert his healing powers into pain. He still had to find out how that worked, though.

Ángel shot the Portuguese a thankful glance before concentrating on Álvaro, looking at him with anger in his eyes. “Anyway, I don’t understand why I am out here with you guys. You know that I can only use my abilities while you are asleep. There is no other way to access and manipulate your dreams.” Next to me, Karim chuckled lightly. He had been creeping up behind us without making a sound and was now sitting next to me on the branch of a fir tree. “Well, you are clearly at a disadvantage here, I’d say,” he commented. Ángel snarled at him before pushing the surprised Frenchman off the branch in a swift motion. I formed small balls of fire and shot them at Álvaro, who only just managed to avoid them. I let out a laugh before jumping off the branch as well.

“That looks quite promising already.” We stopped and turned at once. Iker was standing in the doorway, a smile on his face. “Did you find out how to convert your healing powers into something harmful?” he addressed Fábio, who only shrugged helplessly. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I have a feeling that I need to understand it first before I can do it. I am working on that right now,” he responded and Iker nodded at him. “Good. Álvaro... should we try it once again?“ He grinned at Álvie, who returned the smile. “It would be my pleasure.”

My best friend, like Guti, was immune to Álvaro’s killing glance – always had been. Nobody knew why, but Iker and Álvaro didn’t get tired of trying again and again. He looked Iker straight in the eye, but our leader only grinned. “Nothing, _nada_. Sorry, Álvie.” He winked at him and our compatriot groaned in frustration while Iker turned to me. “What do you say, Sese, you hungry?” Grinning back at him, I nodded. “Do you care for a hunt?” Iker was looking at me in expectation and I nodded once again, my grin getting even bigger. “You bet!” “Come on then.”

I followed him, expecting to go by foot, but Iker was heading for his car. I stared at him in confusion before sitting down on the passenger seat. “Where do you want to go?” I asked him in surprise. Iker had a devious grin on his face. “I was thinking that we could play around a little today, if you know what I mean.” He winked at me and now I also sported a knowing grin. “What happened to San Iker’s _I kill my victims quickly and without much pain_ -policy?” I teased him. Iker grinned faintly before shrugging his shoulders. “I’ve probably been badly influenced by you and Guti,” he retorted before parking the car in front of a club. I grinned. “Scared of realizing that you’ve forgotten everything, old man?” I teased him again, earning myself an elbow to the ribs. “Shut it, Sergio!”

My grin became even bigger and I followed Iker into the club. It was our club, and Daniel Agger, our bouncer, winked at us before letting us in. “How are things thus far?” I quietly asked the Dane, who only shrugged his shoulders. “Not too bad, there are many young people. They should be to your liking.” He grinned and I reciprocated. “Perfect. Are any of the others here?“ “Xabi and Fábio. They are taking over later because you won’t be here, right?“ He continued after my nod. “I’ve also seen Cris somewhere, but don’t ask me.” “Gotcha, thank you.” Iker briefly nodded at Daniel and glanced at the long queue in front of the club before turning to our bouncer once again. “Have you eaten already? If not, Álvaro will be here later anyway, so you’ll be doing a shift together. You can leave for a short while then.”

Daniel grinned, his pointed fangs briefly flashing in the fluorescent lights of the club before shooting a calculating glance at the waiting people as well. “Thanks, I think I’ll find someone, no problem. “ Laughing, Iker briefly slapped Daniel on the shoulder before entering the club. I followed him inside. With me in tow, Iker immediately made his way to the bar. The barkeeper slapped on a big smile when he saw us. “Mister Casillas, it’s good to see you! The usual?” Iker nodded and leaned against the bar, his brown eyes scanning the room in an instant.

I was just about to order a double whiskey when I felt Iker’s hand around on my wrist. “Sese, you know you can’t have whiskey. We don’t want anything bursting into flames.” He grinned at me, but his voice held a warning tone. I sighed in annoyance and turned my back on the bar. Did he really consider it necessary to constantly bring this up? It had happened over 200 years ago, and in the meantime, I’ve learned to control my powers in combination with alcohol.”

“Has anyone caught your eye yet?” I asked him. He nodded in the direction of two young men on the dance floor while taking the first sip of his whiskey. I licked my lips in anticipation. “That’s a good choice; I approve.” Both were about 20 years old and anything but ugly. Iker put his glass away and started to worm his way through the crowd on the dance floor. I followed him without a sound. “Hey,” the blonde guy said to Iker.

„Hey.“ Iker gave him a breathtaking smile – every member of our clan would have taken flight upon seeing this kind of smile on his face, because this smile was deadly and didn’t bode well for the receiver. However, the guy had no way of knowing this. He just smiled back and I almost felt a bit sorry for him in this moment. The whole situation reminded me of a bunny in front of a snake – in this case, Iker was the snake and the guy was the bunny. He had no idea what to expect.

“Do you like the club?” The dark-haired guy nodded. “Totally! One of the best we’ve been to. What about you?“ “Well, it would be troublesome if I didn’t like it. It’s my club, after all. Do the two of you care for drinks? It’s on me.” The two of them gave us an excited nod. “Sese, how about you get us some tequila? I’ll take those two upstairs.” Iker winked at me, and I immediately understood what he had in mind. I smiled and disappeared in the direction of the bar. Oh Iker. “It’s a bit less noisy upstairs. We won’t be disturbed there,“ I heard Iker say and I had to stop myself from laughing out loud.

Of course, I’d never had the intention of even going near the bar. The two of them were facing certain death. I waited for a few minutes and went upstairs afterwards. Entering our usual room, I saw Iker, who was sitting comfortably on the big sofa, while our guests were leaning against the wall. I closed the door behind me, and the soft _click_ that followed was Iker’s cue to get up. “Where is the tequila?” the blonde man asked in confusion, his voice quavering. I grinned. “Unfortunately, we’ve run out of tequila.” My voice held a slightly dangerous undertone. This didn’t slip our guests‘ attention.

“Okay, it’s getting late. We should probably go.“ The dark-haired man sounded like he was about to panic. Iker laughed while gently tracing the line of the tattoo adorning the blonde’s arm. His trembling didn’t slip Iker’s attention either. “Do you really think that you will ever leave this room alive?” he asked him softly, his brown eyes staring into the blonde’s. I was watching Iker in fascination – it had been a hundred years since I last bore witness to him being this... evil.

“That’s sick, man! Who are you, dammit?” the brown-haired one yelled, alerting his Friend, who was numb with fear. Both of them were staring at us in horror, a look of sheer panic on their faces. This might sound strange, but I loved those moments and that incredible kind of power you felt. It seemed that my best friend felt the same way.

Iker and I glanced at each other and, without a word, sank our teeth into our victims’ necks. We didn’t need words to communicate; we understood each other just fine without them. I let Iker go first – he decided on the blonde one – leaving the brown-haired one for me. Both men were screaming while I let out a content sigh as I felt the blood streaming down my throat. Both of them were struggling, but Iker and I didn’t even have to exert ourselves in order to keep them in check. I nearly let out a laugh – as if they would have ever stood a chance against us! Soon, they sank to the floor, and we sucked the last drops of blood from their bodies.

Iker stood up, pulled me to my feet and licked away the blood that had been trailing down my chin. I grinned and placed a soft kiss on my best friend’s cheek. Then, we turned around to leave, and Iker put an arm around my shoulders. “So, do you still think that I’ve forgotten how to do this?” he asked in an amused tone and I instantly had to shake my head before grinning at him. “No, that was incredible. Seriously!” Iker chuckled quietly while we were walking in the direction of the exit. The staff would take care of the bodies later. We would only have to contact Fábio and Xabi.

“Satisfied?” Daniel grinned as we appeared at the door and Iker nodded. “Everything was to our satisfaction, as always.“ “Great. How old were they?“ “20.“ I grinned, the taste of blood still in my mouth. Daniel laughed quietly. “Oh, I see. Young, as always. All right, have fun tonight.“ He winked at us while Iker nodded with a smile. “Thank you, Danny. The same to you!” We climbed into Iker’s car again. I was still surprised at the events that had taken place in the club.

Normally, Iker wasn’t like that. Normally, he killed his victims quietly from behind, drinking their blood afterwards. He always tried to ensure that it was done as quickly and painlessly as possible. Still, what had happened just a few minutes ago..., “Okay, what’s the real reason for you acting this particular way today?” I asked him eventually and Iker grinned while keeping his focus on the road. “Sometimes, I just need this. I don’t know how to explain it either. I know for sure, though, that next time I’m going to do it in a more… humane way.” He laughed briefly and I grinned. “Sometimes it’s great fun, and I needed this before meeting with the others later.“

“Hmm... sounds reasonable.” It didn’t, but what should I say? I didn’t stick to principles like Iker did. I decided how to do it depending on my hunting companions. “You will never be as good as Guti, but, considering that you only do this on rare occasions, your skills were nearly on par with his,” I added and Iker let out a quiet laugh. “José’s way of doing things is little less than actual torture.” I shrugged. “You know him. He loves playing his little games.“ “Indeed,” he murmured before pulling into the driveway.

Smiling, I sent Xabi a short message while getting out of the car. In the message, I told him to send someone upstairs to get rid of the corpses. His answer consisted of a simple _ok._ Feeling satisfied, I shoved my phone back into my pants pocket before following Iker into the house. “Did you have fun?” Guti grinned at us before casually putting an arm around Raúl’s hips. I mimicked his grin. “You can say that again! What about you two?“ I said. Raúl rolled his eyes at my words. “Do you know where Cris is? We should be leaving,“ he said, changing the subject. Not a second had passed when the Portuguese suddenly stood next to Iker. “I’m here, I just had to-“

“say _goodbye_ to Fábio, yeah yeah, we know that,“ Guti’s boyfriend impatiently interrupted Cris. Then, he nodded in the direction of the door. “You know that Xavi hates it if we are late.” “Yeah, although he isn’t even _presidente_ ,” Guti said in amusement while squeezing in the back seat of the car with Raúl and me. “Sometimes he acts as if he was the president, though“, I grumbled, causing Iker to chuckle. “He is the leader of the Culés, which makes him essential to the council. You know that, Sergio,” he said, shooting me a stern glance. I just rolled my eyes behind his back.

Truth be told, I couldn’t stand the whole Barcelona faction, but we had to cooperate with them because they – along with Pepe Reina and us – counted among the oldest vampires of Spain. However, Pepe was living in England together with Santi, Mikel and Javi. They were living together with the English vampires, and he only showed up at important meetings, like the one today. Iker parked the car and Guti, Raúl and I headed inside while Cris was waiting for our leader. Most of the others were already there. I took my seat between Guti and David Villa after greeting the latter one with a curt nod, and Pepe with a short hug.

“Can anybody tell me where Piqué and Fàbregas are hanging around?” Iker’s annoyed voice made me look up. Because of this, I noticed that we were all here. Well almost, as the two Culés were still missing. Iker’s good mood had rapidly turned sour, given that those two were late yet again. I noticed how Guti and Pepe grinned as well. “We are here!” Piqué tore open the door, being closely followed by Cesc, who at least had the decency to look a bit guilty. Gerard had only shot a quick glance at Iker before they took their seats between Puyol and Xavi. I didn’t miss Xavi’s disapproving glance in their direction, which made me grin even more.

“Now that we’re all here...,” Iker’s piercing gaze had shortly rested on Cesc and Gerard before he continued, “we can finally start our meeting. We have an important issue to discuss, but I’ll talk about this later. First things first, someone witnessed Cesc while he was hunting a few days ago.” Iker turned to the Culé’s leader, who only sighed softly before shooting a reproachful glance at Cesc. “I know. David has taken care of it,” he calmly explained. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Villa grinning. Iker nodded in approval and quickly exchanged glances with Guti before continuing.

“Excellent. Furthermore, Blatter’s presidency in the World Vampire Council is ending in two months’ time, and we’ll need to think about where our loyalties lie.” Carles cocked his eyebrow while tucking a lock of hair behind his ear. “Who will be running for president anyway?” “Blatter of course, Platini, Beckenbauer and I think that Buffon has also thought about it,” Raúl answered and I had to grin when I saw Iker grimace at the last name. “Why aren’t you running for office, Iker?” Pepe asked with amusement in his voice. “I’m sure that you would get a lot of votes,” he added with a serious expression on his face. Iker raised his eyebrows and shook his head. “No, thank you. I’m stressed enough with you lot as it is. I don’t want to keep struggling with the Germans, English, Italians and whatnot on top of that,“ he explained, daring anybody to challenge his decision.

“Who do the Germans, Italians and English support, by the way?” Xavi asked with curiosity, leaning back in his chair. “Well... I have talked to Lahm, Schweinsteiger and Hummels, and it seems that they aren’t in agreement yet. All the Italians are backing Buffon,” Guti explained and Pepe raised his eyebrows. “Honestly speaking, I don’t think that Buffon would be a bad choice. At least it would be different. Also, Blatter hasn’t really covered himself with glory during his 400 years of presidency,” he suggested, earning himself a poignant glare from Iker.

“Gigi is not an option,” he growled and Gerard rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Jesus Christ, Iker, just because you’ve got problems with your boyfriend doesn’t mean that you should drag all of us into your mess,” he said in irritation. Immediately, he slapped a hand to his mouth as he realized what he had just said. “Shit, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that!” Cris, who was leaning against the wall behind Iker, snarled at Gerard and Iker glared daggers at him but ignored him otherwise. “For now, I just wanted to inform you about the nominees, and you can discuss everything with your clan until our next meeting. Pepe, can you relay this information to Cazorla, Arteta and Martínez?” Iker asked the vampire to my left and said vampire nodded.

“Admittedly, I think that Santi, Javi, Mikel and I will agree on a candidate pretty quickly, but we will discuss this and I’ll let you know about our decision then,” he calmly explained. “Excellent. Xavi, discuss this with your people as well, and let me know who you have decided on afterwards,” Iker said to the leader of the Culés, who exchanged a brief glance with David before turning his attention to us again. “And lastly...,” Iker hesitated for a moment before apparently deciding to just come out with it.

“Mourinho is back.” Almost immediately, the whole atmosphere in the room changed, and everyone unconsciously tensed up a bit. Xavi, Pepe, Villa and Cesc, who had been leaning back in their chairs until a moment ago, now sat up, looking at Iker in alert. The rest of us did the same. “How do you know that?” Villa asked, still remaining tense. Our leader nodded in my direction. “Sergio found out about it.” At this moment I was given the undivided attention of anyone in the room. Groaning internally, I told them a short summary of the story.

“He is Fernando’s boss and owns a bar in Madrid.” Okay, that was the shortest summary possible, but what else was there to say? It contained the most crucial information, which was all that mattered, really. “Who is Fernando?” Gerard asked with a frown and I had to gulp. _Mierda_. “An... acquaintance,” I slowly responded, causing Xavi to raise his eyebrows. “Oh well, do we know him?” Oh God, now I remembered why I hated the Culés so much in the first place. “I don’t think so, seeing as he is... human.” As soon as I had uttered the sentence, I regretted doing so. Xavi’s eyebrows had crept even higher up his forehead, and the others were looking at me skeptically.

“I see. So, why on earth are you in contact with a human? As far as I know, there is a law which forbids us from being in contact with humans, except for hunting,” Carles remarked sarcastically. In this moment, I had to resist throwing something at him. “Well... I...,” “Oh, I understand.” A knowing smile had appeared on David’s face, and he gave me a quick once-over. “You are playing the same game as you did with Jesús back then.” I stared at him in disbelief. No, he hadn’t just compared Nando with Jésus. “Don’t get mad, Sese,“ Guti suddenly whispered into my ear, just loud enough for me to hear, while wrapping his cool hand around my right wrist. It tingled and he blocked my anger almost immediately. I growled quietly and gave Villa a dirty look.

“Nando is not Jesús,” I stated in a quiet but threatening voice. “Even if he was, it wouldn’t do,” David retorted in amusement. “Jesús is dead. You’ve killed him with your own hands, and I only wanted to know if you were planning the same for Fernando. You know, making him fall in love with you and taking his blood a little at a time before finishing him off or coming up with something different?” In this moment, I was really thankful to Guti for still keeping a tight hold on my wrist, suppressing my feelings and my powers at the same time. If it hadn’t been for him, I would have lost control and wouldn’t have been able to guarantee anything. Now, Iker jumped to my defense, not having missed the murderous look in my eyes.

“If you don’t want to lose your seat in this council to Xabi for the next 200 years, I suggest you shut your mouth now, Villa,” Iker said threateningly. David rolled his eyes before crossing his arms in front of his chest and leaning back in his chair. However, he kept his mouth shut, for which I was extremely grateful to Iker. “The important question is: what does Mourinho want in Madrid after all this time?” our president asked the others, and Pepe, who was sitting across from me, was chewing on his bottom lip. “I don’t know, but I sure as hell don’t like it,” he murmured. Xavi nodded in agreement. All of us had had some unpleasant encounters with Mourinho. Cris’ story was just one of many issues.

“We will be keeping an eye on him and inform you when we know more,“ Iker stated and let out a sigh before glancing at the clock. “Are there any important issues left to discuss?” Pepe nodded hesitantly. “Steven thought that you should know that in England, some people have come by some vampire blood and are now experimenting around with it. They mix it with cocaine and use it as a kind of drug. The stuff is highly addictive, and by _highly addictive_ I mean addictive as hell. Some of those people had the stupid idea to hunt vampires in order to get a hold of their blood. I mean, they didn’t really stand a chance, seeing as they showed up with garlic, silver and crosses,” Pepe let out a grim laugh. “However, more and more people are dying because of this, and it’s getting difficult to hide all the bodies. Steven thought that you should be warned in advance, in case this spreads to Spain.”

Iker frowned. “How on earth did those junkies come by vampire blood?” he asked in bewilderment, but Pepe only shrugged. “I don’t know, but the good thing is that nobody would believe them if they started to tell people about vampires. They are declared insane, and Steven, along with his clan, is compelling all the junkies at the moment.“ Iker was silent for a moment before nodding at him. “Okay, thank you, Pepe. Telling me about this was important. We will keep an eye on this.“ Pepe smiled and Iker glanced at the clock once again. By now it was three o’ clock in the morning.

“I think that’s it for today. If there is any problem, please contact me. Pepe, Tell Steven I said hello.” Iker stood up; we did the same. Guti was still inconspicuously touching my wrist, as I was still feeling angry because of Villa. Only when all of the Culés had left the room did José let go of me, and I let out a breath I’d been holding. “Those damn Culés! I am going to kill Villa if he dares to mention Jesús again. I was on the point of-“

“Sergio!“ Iker’s admonishing voice interrupted my tirade of hate against David Villa, and I rolled my eyes. “What?” “He did have a point,” Iker said quietly and my face darkened, but Iker raised his hand as I opened my mouth to say something, effectively shutting me up. “No, let me finish. I don’t think he was right when he accused you of playing with Fernando, and then killing him, but he managed to make me think about it in more detail. You like him, Sese. You already like him a bit too much and that’s not good at all. You will either kill him, which would cause you unbearable pain, or you will do something stupid, causing problems for both of you. This is why ... I am asking you to keep your distance, okay? You have spent too much time with him already and if you aren’t careful, you’re eventually going to develop feelings for him.”

Only silence followed Iker’s words, and I had to gulp. I knew deep inside that he was right, but I didn’t want to admit it. That’s why I only shot him a dark look before turning away and stomping in the direction of the door. “I can take care of myself just fine, Iker, and I won’t hurt Nando, damn it!” I yelled before slamming the door shut. “Jesus, how old is he by now? 426? Here I thought that he had grown out of the rebellious phase,” I heard Guti whisper and I unwillingly growled. That’s right; I was 426 years for God’s sake! I was old enough to know what I was doing.


	3. Perfection

**Fernando’s POV**

I sighed with relief as I was throwing my stuff into my bag before disappearing through the door of the bar. Costa was taking over the night shift and Juan had arrived a few minutes ago. Thank God, I had the rest of the day – and the evening – off. I blinked when I saw a somewhat familiar figure leaning against the wall of the building across the street. What the hell was Sergio doing here? He grinned when he spied me, took off his sun glasses, and quickly crossed the road.

 

“Hey, Nando! Finally, I thought that your boss wouldn’t let you leave at all.” He beamed at me and I felt my mouth go dry as I noticed his smile. Shit. I had already seen it a few times, but every time I saw it, it was just as breathtaking as the first time. “What... are you doing here?” I stuttered, almost tripping over the words. Sergio grinned, exposing a set of perfectly white teeth. “I wanted to ask you if you’d like to go for a drink with me.”

 

I stared at him in surprise while trying to wrap my head around the idea. I had already taken notice of Sergio’s bluntness, but in this moment, I was totally taken by surprise. I mean... I didn’t really know the guy, and I also didn’t know if this was such a good idea. He could be God-knows-who and he was still almost a stranger to me.

 

“Yeah, I’d love to,” I heard myself say and Sergio’s grin transformed into a smile. “Perfect. Shall we?” He nodded in the direction of the street and I followed him without a word. Deep inside, I was still cursing myself for just agreeing like that. “So, Nando... I noticed that I don’t know a lot about you.” He beamed at me and I couldn’t help but grin back at him. “Well, you’ve never really asked and we didn’t have time as well. You still owe me an explanation for the water you didn’t stay for, by the way,” I reminded him, causing him to grimace.

 

“As I said in my text, I’m sorry about that. It was an emergency. A friend of mine wasn’t feeling well and... forgive me, would you?” He looked at me apologetically. His brown eyes seemed to bore into mine and he gently touched my cheek. Getting completely lost in his gaze, I couldn’t move and only just managed to nod before he smiled and averted his gaze. I shook my head in irritation. What the hell had just happened?! Since when had I been transfixed like that by some guy? The spot where he had touched me was still tingling slightly and I gulped. My mouth felt really dry all of a sudden.

 

“So… how long have you been working at the bar?” Sergio asked me with a smile. He was still walking while I was trying my best to keep up with him. “Um... for about a year. Mourinho had just opened the bar back then and he was looking for staff. And I, well... I needed the money.” I shrugged and Sergio frowned. “Why? What about your family?“ “Well… you see, I was born here in Madrid, but when I was a child, my parents and I moved to England. A year ago, I wanted to go back to Spain and well... I’ve been here ever since. They stayed in London,” I responded with a shrug.

 

“Oh... okay, and how do you like Madrid, now that you’re here again?” Sergio asked out of curiosity as we were making our way into the city center. I chuckled lightly and pulled my jacket closer to my body. It was getting darker and colder, but that was to be expected in fall. “It’s still as beautiful as it has been in my memories – even though I don’t know a lot of people here. So, I spend most of my free time with Juan,” I explained. “Juan?” Sergio frowned and for a moment I thought that his face had darkened a bit. “He’s a good friend of mine. I’d even say he’s my best friend here in Madrid,” I explained calmly and Sergio seemed to relax at this.

 

“I see... and how is Mourinho like? As a boss, I mean...,” he suddenly asked and now I was the one with a frown on his face. “Why do you want to know that?” The Spaniard next to me shrugged his shoulders and smiled faintly. “I don’t know. Last time he didn’t strike me as a very friendly guy.” “Well… he isn’t. Not really. He just barricades himself in his office most of the time. He’s also nagging me a lot and he seems to hate me although I don’t really know why.” I sighed and put my hands into my jacket pockets. It was getting quite chilly outside. “How about we stop talking about work?” Sergio smiled apologetically while playing with the silver ring on his finger. “Sorry. So, Nando, what’s your favorite dish?”

 

He grinned once again and I grinned back faintly. “Pizza, noodles; I am not that picky, but I love homemade paella. Before I even had the chance to ask him anything, he fired another question at me. “Atlético or Real?” I chuckled quietly. “Atlético, of course.“ Sergio grimaced at my answer and shook his head in mock disappointment. “And here I thought that you were alright,” he said with a grin on his face, causing me to roll my eyes. “I thought the same about you.” “Okay, okay, but we still have to work on the soccer matter.” Sergio let out a laugh and I just grinned.

 

It was so alarmingly easy to talk to him and although I initially didn’t want to come, I was now enjoying every single second of it. Strangely enough, Sergio’s presence just naturally made people feel at ease. “Okay, I’ve talked enough about me. Tell me something about you,“ I said after we had been walking through Madrid for about an hour. In the meantime, it had gotten dark; it had grown cold as well.

 

Sergio only smiled faintly before suddenly putting both of his big hands on each side of my head and kissing me gently. My world stopped spinning for a second. My heart was beating at twice the speed it normally did and everything I could feel at this moment were Sergio’s slightly coarse but still soft lips on mine. They were moving slowly. I opened my mouth slightly, and suddenly, I could feel his tongue exploring my mouth.

 

I pulled my hands from my jacket pockets and put them around Sergio’s waist. He only pulled me closer to him and I could feel the heat radiating from his body. While one hand was carefully caressing my cheek, the other touched my back, and I relaxed completely. I ignored my brain, which was telling me that I didn’t really know this guy, but in that moment, Sergio was the only thing that counted.

 

Sergio, who was such a great kisser; Sergio, who was so damn careful; Sergio, who was so breathtakingly handsome; Sergio, who made me laugh; Sergio, who beamed at me; Sergio, who somehow resembled my personal angel. I didn’t know how he had entered my life all of a sudden and what I had done to deserve him. Maybe there was no love at first sight. Maybe he was a little bit strange, but in this very moment, when he was kissing me, I knew that I trusted him and that you didn’t really have to know a person in order to develop feelings for them.

  

**Sergio’s POV**

As soon as Nando was on his way home, I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath – even though the latter was practically unnecessary. What the hell... keeping my self-restraint had been racking on my nerves and I decided to go for a quick hunt before going home. Meeting Nando always made me feel so goddamn hungry afterwards. I hurriedly drank the blood of the first human that came along and hid the corpse in a makeshift manner before heading home.

 

I quietly entered the hallway even though it wasn’t necessary to be this careful; the others would hear me anyway. However, it was unusually quiet, which made me frown. I headed towards the library and found Guti, who was relaxing on the white couch. According to an unwritten law, Guti was in charge of everything while Iker was out hunting. Nobody dared to go against it. He smiled as I entered the room and patted the empty space next to him. I plopped down next to him and he grinned.

 

“What age?” I shrugged my shoulders and slightly leaned against him. “20?” Guti laughed quietly before licking a leftover drop of blood off the corner of my mouth. He nodded in satisfaction and put an arm around my shoulders. “You have great taste, I’ll give you that. Now, explain the other scent I can smell on you.” I gulped. Shit. How should I explain the thing with Nando to him? However, thinking about Nando made me grin yet again, causing Guti to raise his eyebrows. “I am all ears. Oh no, Sergio, don’t tell me that you’ve been with Fernando?”

 

I didn’t answer him. Thinking about the kiss, I involuntarily had to smile. I didn’t really know why I had kissed him in the first place. Maybe because I couldn’t really talk about myself, but still didn’t want to lie to him. “No.” Guti was staring at me incredulously and I reciprocated the look in confusion. It took a lot to baffle him like that and I wondered what he had been feeling. “You couldn’t possibly have fallen in love with him, Sergio. That... that’s impossible! Iker is going to kill you when he finds out!“ I gulped and decided to keep silent. There was nothing left to say anyway.

 

“Oh, come here,” Guti whispered, pulling me closer. I sighed and put my head on his shoulder. “He... doesn’t need to know?” I hesitantly started and a typical grin appeared on Guti’s face. “He doesn’t, and I won’t say anything to him,” he calmly stated. “Fernando... whatever it is that you two have together, it makes you happy. If you are happy, that’s enough for me. Still, before you ever plan on doing something stupid, come and find me first, okay?” I nodded, sighed and closed my eyes.

 

“Where are all the others, by the way?” I asked tiredly. I could feel Guti’s chest vibrating under me as he laughed. “Raúl, Iker, Cris, Fábio and Xabi are out hunting. Álvaro is at the club with Ángel and Luka, and Marcelo and Karim are somewhere in the house. I’ve only stayed here because of them. I also wanted to wait for you.” Guti sighed theatrically before stretching his limbs a bit. “Karim is 275 and Marcelo is 230. You would think that both of them are old enough to look after themselves, right?” he murmured and I grinned, still keeping my eyes closed. I was so damn tired.

 

“You turned them, so that’s your job,“ I responded lazily and Guti elbowed me in the side. “Oh, shut up! You are sounding more and more like Iker. Just because I don’t think that a vampire needs looking after until he is 400 doesn’t mean that he has to order me to stay here.” I smiled quietly while listening to him. After Iker had turned me, he, Guti and Raúl had become something like older brothers to me – they were only a few years older than me by human standards. They had taken care of me and had taught me everything. I was so grateful for everything they had done for me.

 

“Have Iker and Gigi made up yet?” I asked, nearly dozing off. Guti let out a laugh. “No, but it won’t be long now, if you ask me. He is getting more insufferable by the day. He is in dire need of sex.” “No shit,“ I grumbled. “I’ve already noticed that, since we are the one who are suffering because of it.” Guti laughed quietly before I once again felt his hand on my arm.

 

“Sleep, Sese. You are going to need it,” he whispered and almost instantly I felt the fatigue overpowering me – I didn’t even try to fight it. If he wanted to, Guti was a hundred times more powerful than I was. Fighting it was pointless. Not even two seconds had passed when I fell asleep.

 

When I woke up, Guti was gone, but he had left a cup of blood on the table. Outside, the sun was already rising. Groaning, I stretched my limbs. Only then did I take notice of Xabi sitting across from me in one of the chairs, holding a cup of blood whiskey and reading some book. “What do you want?” I grumbled and my compatriot looked up from his book. “Aren’t you a ray of sunshine?” he mocked me and I rolled my eyes. “Alcohol? This early in the morning?” I asked, shooting a skeptical glance at his glass and shrugging my shoulders. “It was necessary. You’ll understand the reason for it in a minute. Besides, it doesn’t affect us anyway; you know that.“

 

“What happened?” Slowly, I sat up and took a sip from the cup. “Two dead bodies. They haven’t been killed by us. They were found near Mourinho’s bar and it looked pretty much like a vampire attack.“ Almost immediately, I was wide-awake, staring at Xabi. “Who were they?!” Xabi rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, just some unknown people. Fernando wasn’t among them.“ I exhaled audibly and nodded. “Mourinho,“ I whispered. “He is marking his territory.“ “That’s right.“ Xabi put his glass on the table and rose from his seat.

 

“Iker and Guti are at the police station right now. They are compelling the police so that it looks like a common mugging to them, not like a vampire attack. Initially, Iker wanted you to come, but José thought it would be best to let you sleep. So, now I am here to tell you all about this – oh, and I should also ask you if you have found out more about Mourinho.” I nodded and went to the door with Xabi on my heels. While we were walking to the kitchen, I told the Basque about the most crucial pieces of information, causing him to frown. “So, he has been in Madrid for a year and we didn’t notice?” I nodded before entering the kitchen.

 

Fábio and Karim nodded at me briefly and I grabbed one of the blood bags we always stored in our fridge. “Where is Cris?” I asked the Portuguese, who was playing around with his phone. “Where do you think he is? He went with Iker,” Fábio answered and I nodded before sitting down on the bench next to Karim. The two of them were talking to Xabi, but my mind was elsewhere. I had to talk to Nando and make sure that he was okay as quickly as possible. “I’m off. I’ll probably see you in the evening... at the club or something,” I said, standing up abruptly.

 

The three of them shot me surprised glances, but before they even got the chance to ask, I had vanished from the kitchen and the house. I pulled my phone out of my pants pocket and texted Nando, asking him if we could meet in a cafe or somewhere downtown – as far as I knew, he had the day off. He should be free to meet me.

 

**Fernando’s POV**

I frowned when reading Sergio’s text. Then, I grinned and sent a reply to him, typing a simple “Ok.” We met up at a small cafe somewhere downtown. Sergio was already there and I smiled when he pressed a gentle kiss on my lips. “Hey,” I said. He smiled as well – it was this one particular smile that made me feel all fuzzy inside. “Are you hungry?” he asked me and I nodded. Sergio led me to a small hidden table in the corner before ordering coffee and some churros for me. He didn’t order anything for himself.

 

“Aren’t you hungry?“ I asked him in surprise, but Sergio only shook his head at that. “I’ve already eaten, but thanks.” “Oh... okay then… why did you want to meet up on such short notice?“ I asked with uncertainty before starting to eat. What if he was here to tell me that yesterday hadn’t meant anything to him? Sergio, who seemed to feel my insecurity, took a hold of my hand and smiled at me. “Don’t worry, it’s not about yesterday. It’s just that I’ve heard about the dead bodies that had been found near the bar you are work at and well... I was worried.”

 

He bit his lip and I couldn’t hold back a smile. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. Yesterday, I went home immediately and I only heard about the bodies a few hours ago.” I got serious once again and I couldn’t stop the goose bumps from appearing on my skin. Sergio’s thumb was lightly caressing the back of my hand, which only made the goose bumps worse. He looked me in the eyes with a serious expression. His brown pupils looked quite dark.

 

“Nando, you have to promise me that you won’t go out alone at night, okay?” I don’t want you to get killed by… some murderer.“ I observed how he hesitated at the word _murderer_ , but I didn’t take notice of this, since my attention was solely focused on his eyes. “Okay,” I whispered and he nodded in satisfaction. “Good.” Suddenly, I remembered something. “You… yesterday you didn’t answer my question,“ I reminded him and he frowned. “Which one?“ “The one about yourself. I’ve told you so much about myself, but when I asked you to tell me about yourself, you just kissed me.“ I had to smile at the memory; he smiled as well.

 

“Okay, ask me a question and I will answer it for you,” Sergio said and I thought about it for a moment. “Okay... what about your parents?” “Dead,” he answered curtly and I gulped. “Oh, uhm… I’m sorry, I-,“ I stammered, but Sergio interrupted me by pressing a short kiss on my lips. “It’s okay,” he replied with a gentle tone in his voice and smiled at me. “It’s been a long time since they died and I can’t really remember them anyway. What else?” “Hmm...,” I thought about it for a moment and took another sip of my coffee before asking another question. “What are you doing for a living? Or are you a student at university?” “I’ve inherited a small sum and I work as a barkeeper at a club.” He grinned and I nodded. “Okay.”

 

Honestly speaking, I didn’t know what else to ask him. “Your favorite dish?” Now he seemed to seriously consider my question until he answered with a grin. “I am not that picky. I basically eat everything. I like steaks, rare.“ He laughed as he saw me grimacing. “It tastes delicious, trust me.” “I highly doubt that...,” I murmured and he grinned. “Any other questions?“ “Yes.“ I nodded at the silver ring on his finger, with which he liked to play. “What is the meaning behind this?”

 

This time, he was hesitating for quite some time, running his fingers over the ring, seemingly lost in thoughts. “It’s an old family heirloom and I have a feeling that taking it off will result in bad luck,” he explained eventually with a lopsided grin. I raised my eyebrows and he carefully caressed my cheek. “You are so handsome, Nando, do you know that?“ he quietly said all of a sudden and I froze, unable to move or say anything. “Uhm...,” I stammerd, sounding not quite intelligent. Sergio, however, only smiled one of his perfect smiles and pulled me into a soft kiss.

 

His lips were still as warm and pleasant as yesterday and I let myself relax once again. His right hand was still clutching mine and I squeezed it gently, running my thumb over the back of his hand. God, how could a person be this perfect?

 


	4. Lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the original story, breathxx told her readers that the middle part of the chapter is quite cruel and bloody. Please keep that in mind.

**Fernando’s POV**

Two weeks had passed. Two weeks during which Sergio and I had met up daily and had become closer. It was incredible how important a person could become in such a short span of time. It might sound ridiculous, but I couldn’t imagine a life without Sergio anymore. He was almost always in a good mood, made me laugh, listened to me and was extremely handsome. It was still a mystery to me how a person could be as perfect as Sergio.

This evening, however, I was meeting Juan. We wanted to go to a club to drink and talk a bit. We hadn’t been hanging out after work for ages and so I was really looking forward to this evening with my best friend. I was already sitting at the bar in the club when Juan showed up, pulling me into a short hug instantly. “Nando!” he yelled, grinning at me. I grinned right back at him before passing him a beer.

“You alright?” he asked and we clinked our glasses. I nodded. “Always. You know me. How about you?“ “Of course. So, how are things? Did anything interesting happen?“ Immediately, my smile returned and my best friend put on a knowing grin. “I see, so you’ve met someone. What’s his name?” “Sergio.“ Juan’s grin got even wider and he raised his bottle once again. “Cheers, mate!” I grinned back at him and clinked glasses with him once again. “Thanks.” Two hours passed during which we were drinking and talking. Suddenly, I saw a familiar figure in the crowd. Could that be...?

“Excuse me for a moment,“ I murmured in Juan’s direction. He only nodded at this. I slid off my barstool and carefully made my way through the crowd in the direction in which I seemingly had seen Sergio go. I caught a glimpse of him right as he disappeared through the door leading outside. I followed him quietly. What was the point in that? That was actually a good question. Maybe I was just curious, jealous… Afterwards, I wasn’t even sure myself.

Sergio vanished into a small back alley of the club and I carefully peeked around the corner. Then, I crouched down between two big trash cans and peeked through a narrow gap in the direction Sergio had gone. He joined two other men, but one of them... he didn’t look similar to Sergio, not at all, but he was as good looking as Sergio – in that strange kind of way. He was tall, muscular, black-haired, dark-eyed as far as I could see, and he had a pretty attractive way about him.

The third man had average looks and looked pretty drunk. He was leaning against the wall and didn’t really seem to be aware of his surroundings anymore. I frowned. What the hell was Sergio doing with a drunken guy and a handsome stranger in a dark alley at this time?

“What took you so long, Sese?” the black-haired guy asked and I shuddered at the sound of his voice. It was a bit throaty and – even if that description of his voice sounded stupid – it was damn sexy. “I thought that I had seen Nando somewhere, but I must have been mistaken. Whatever. Do you want him, Cris, or should I?” Sergio said and I felt goose bumps as he mentioned my name.

Somehow, this whole situation gave me the creeps and I was feeling quite uneasy. “I’ll take him,” the handsome guy announced and I could hear Sergio’s laugh. “All right, have fun. I’ll look for another one later.” He leaned against the wall and I raised my eyebrows. What the hell were they even talking about?

In this moment, the guy, who Sergio had called Cris, sank his teeth into the drunken guy’s neck. I could only hear his heart-piercing cry. I quickly stuffed my fist into my mouth to prevent myself from screaming as well and tried my best to control my breathing. I was thunderstruck as I watched how this Cris was slowly sucking the blood of the drunken man while Sergio was leaning against the wall, watching the whole thing with an amused expression on his face.

I closed my eyes for a moment, hoping that this was just a bad dream and that my mind was playing tricks on me, but when I opened them again, my eyes were still being assaulted by the same gruesome sight and my thoughts were running wild. That couldn’t- but that was-

“ _Okay... what about your parents?” “Dead.” “I don’t want you to get killed by… some murderer.“ “I like steaks, rare.“ “It is an old family heirloom and I have a feeling that taking it off will result in bad luck.” “I’ve already eaten, but thanks.”_ Again and again those sentences were resounding through my head, and more and more strange occurrences popped up in my head when I thought about the last two weeks.

Sergio, whose eyes were sometimes glinting in a light brown, but were nearly black on other days; Sergio, who pretty much never ate anything when we went to a cafe or a restaurant; Sergio, about whom I didn’t really know anything at all, except that his parents were dead and that he worked as a barkeeper.

At this moment, said Cris let go of the drunkard and I gasped in horror as I saw the blood running down his chin. Immediately, I became aware of the giant mistake I had just made. I paled. Upon hearing my gasp, both men had turned their heads in my direction. Sergio’s brown eyes were staring directly into mine.

“Nando,“ he whispered in horror. His amused expression had given way to a bewildered one. “Shit, Nando, I-“ I, however, wasn’t listening to him anymore. I turned on my heels and started to run, away, just far away from him, from the dead body and from his sick friend. “Do you really think it’s clever to run away?” All of sudden, Sergio stood in front of me, scrutinizing me with concern in his eyes. My eyes widened in horror. “What- how...,” I whispered and made a few steps backwards, backing away from him. Sergio sighed and murmured some Spanish curse words before looking me directly in the eye.

I avoided his gaze. I had often heard about those so-called _hypnotic powers_ , which they – whatever they were – possessed. “Nando, I can explain everything, I-,“ he started, but I interrupted him. “What the hell are you, Sergio?” I asked him flatly. I was still staring at him in horror. He gulped. “Isn’t it obvious?“ he quietly asked and I turned even paler than I already was. “But that... that’s impossible,” I whispered. He took a step in my direction. “Nando, I-“

“Stay away from me!“ I yelled in panic and moved back in order to increase the distance between us, still avoiding his gaze. _“Look one of them in the eyes and your soul will be lost forever.”_ My grandmother had always said that and now everything made sense to me. All those strange moments where I couldn’t speak or move because I was so fascinated with his eyes. “Oh God...,” I ran one hand through my hair and swallowed audibly. “Leave me alone, Sergio – forever,“ I said quietly. Then I turned around and left. “Nando, please,“ I heard him desperately calling after me, and it took all of my self-control to not turn around and run back into his arms and cry.

What was I to him anyway? Just some sick game? _He would have killed you anyway_ , a small voice whispered deep inside my head. Well, that didn’t make it any better. In the meantime, the first tears had started to silently make their way down my cheeks. I tried to increase the distance between me and Sergio as fast as possible, but I knew that if he had wanted it, he would have already caught up to me. However, he somehow seemed to have taken my words to heart. Meanwhile, I had arrived at my flat and unlocked the front door with shaking hands. As soon as I was inside and had closed the door behind me, I broke down on the floor and started sobbing uncontrollably.

 

**Sergio’s POV**

“Fucking shit!” Feeling despair, I hit the first available tree with my fist. The tree gave way to the force of my punch. Then I broke down on the floor and the first tears started to fall down my cheeks. “Sese?” Cris’ alarmed voice made me look up. He froze. “Shit, Sese,“ he whispered, having crouched down next to me within a millisecond. Then, he pulled me into a tight hug, but I was as good as paralyzed. I had screwed up big time. He was the first guy that had meant something to me in over 400 years and now I had messed it up because I hadn’t been careful enough. 

As if in trance, I noticed that Cris was taking me home. I wasn’t even aware of my surroundings as we were nearing home. All I could think of was Nando’s panic-stricken face and how he had avoided my gaze. Immediately as we entered the hallway, Guti was there and pulled me into a tight embrace. A second later, Iker was also next to me. The blonde vampire must have already sensed my emotions as soon as we entered the house. Guti and Raúl brought me back to my room. 

“Oh, Nene,“ Iker whispered again and again, running his hand down my back. I was clinging to his sweater, crying uncontrollably. In this moment, I simply didn’t care. I had lost the one thing that was most important to me and I simply didn’t care about the rest. “What happened?“ Guti worriedly asked and Cris quietly told him what had happened in that alley a few minutes earlier. As soon as he had finished, I was pulled into a hug by Iker and Guti once again, and I noticed how José was trying to influence my feelings – without success. I didn’t even resist, but it still didn’t work – this showed just how messed up I really was. 

Now Guti was really worried and he shot a helpless glance at Iker, who looked back at him just as helplessly. It didn’t happen every day that both of them didn’t know what to do. Raúl and Cris had left the room to explain to the others what had happened. After all, they were my brothers and they were worried sick. I also had to give Iker credit for not using empty phrases à la _I told you so_! He also didn’t reproach me for my mistakes, and I was really thankful for that. He just silently sat there and held me, together with Guti. 

After two hours I was still lying in bed, unmoving, staring at the ceiling. I tried to banish Nando’s face from my thoughts. Guti had disappeared for a short while to get me some blood, but I hadn’t touched it upon his return, although I hadn’t eaten anything in three days. Iker was pacing restlessly while Guti was quietly sitting next to me on the bed. 

“Sese I- I know that you probably don’t want to talk about this right now, but it’s important,” Iker suddenly said. I just clung to Guti’s sweater. José was soothingly running his hands down my back, pulling me closer. “Listen... Fernando is human and he knows about our existence. I understand that you don’t want to do this, but eventually Guti or I have to compel him to ensure that-“ 

“No,” I interrupted him with a hoarse voice, hot tears pooling in my eyes. Iker raised his eyebrows, his brown eyes looking at me skeptically. “What do you mean by ‘no’?” he asked and I gulped. Then I – unnecessarily – took a deep breath before starting to talk. “Nando won’t say anything – I swear. I give you my word, Iker. If he reveals anything, you can kill me. I will take full responsibility, but he deserves to know the truth,” I said quietly and felt Guti tense up next to me. 

Iker seemed to think about it for a moment. Then he nodded slowly – however, he still looked at me with worry etched on his face. “Woe betide him if he can’t keep his mouth shut,” Guti growled. Iker was still looking at me without saying a word. I ignored both of them, as I had started to cry once again. Thinking of Nando hurt so damn much. 

Suddenly, I was overwhelmed by heavy fatigue and I could hardly keep my eyes open. “You know that I could never kill him, José,” I suddenly heard Iker say, his hand carefully caressing my hair. “He is my best friend and my family. I could never do that to him.” I didn’t catch Guti’s answer, as I fell asleep – it was a deep and dreamless sleep. Guti’s ability had finally taken effect.

 

(this is the part that’s been mentioned)

 

Three days had passed and I still wasn’t feeling any better. The guilt was eating away at me, and Nando’s face had even started to haunt my dreams. I hadn’t eaten anything ever since because I was holding the faint hope that this would distract me from my Nando-problems. I was getting weaker and weaker by the day. I didn’t speak to anyone and just kept staring out of the window. 

“Okay, that’s it!” Guti stormed into my room with an angry glint in his blue eyes. “I will not watch my little brother/son starving himself to death!” He stopped in front of my bed, glaring at me with anger in his eyes, but I simply ignored him. I wasn’t in the mood for one of Guti’s moods – actually, I wasn’t in the mood for doing anything at all. “Fine, the choice is yours. Either you’ll go hunting with me or Iker will force you to eat. You know that he is capable of doing just that, and it won’t be pretty,” José hissed. Slowly, I tore my gaze away from the window and turned my head in Guti’s direction. 

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?” I whispered, biting my lips. I was desperately trying to get rid of the lump in my throat. I looked at him reproachfully, and any other person would have left me alone when seeing this gaze – but it didn’t work on José. He only huffed angrily, grasped my wrist and pulled me out of bed.

 “Come on, Sese. You have to eat something; you know that,” he said surprisingly gently and I had to sigh. Resistance was futile. Guti always got what he wanted, especially if he was hungry. I just let him pull me to the nearest park since I wasn’t able to do anything on my own right now. Besides, I would have rather stayed home. There, I could at least have tried to forget everything. Sometimes I just hated the fact that alcohol didn’t work on us. Then again, watching José hunt was really fascinating – as I said, he did it with a kind of cruel perfection, which was quite impressive. 

All of a sudden, he came to a standstill and pulled me behind a tree. “The guy over there: black hair, blue eyes, blood with a mildly sweet scent;” he quietly explained, and now I smelled it too. Suddenly, my throat started burning, and the feeling was stronger than it had ever been before. I tried to think about something else, but Guti had noticed the expression on my face and grinned triumphantly. “Just let me handle this,” he whispered and I nodded while watching him walk over to our victim. 

He had put on his typical predatory grin, which I had also sometimes seen on Karim’s face. Well, he was a chip off the old block – or something like that. If Guti smiled like that you would be well advised to take to your heels– as quickly as humanly possible. “Hey.” José licked his lips. Turning in Guti’s direction, the guy smiled at him. „Hey.“ Somehow, I felt sorry for him. He couldn’t possibly know that he had just signed his own death sentence. “Do you come here often?” The guy shook his head. „Rarely.“ Well, today would be his last time. Guti’s hand brushed his arm as if by accident. 

“Maybe you’ll come here more often from now on,” he murmured, his breath tickling the guy’s ear, which made his skin crawl. José let his hands rest on the other guy’s hips and gently pushed him out of the field of vision of possible eyewitnesses. Oh Lord, that guy was totally under Guti’s spell. He wouldn’t stand a chance. Inconspicuously, I followed them. I just couldn’t miss that opportunity. Guti’s victim stood leaning against a tree with Guti right in front of him. He had once again put on his predatory grin again. The guy was as good as dead. 

Guti’s lips caressed the man’s neck and my insides were tingling, whether I liked it or not. This guy could rob you of your senses when he was hunting. I heard the stifled gasps of his victim as Guti sank his teeth into his shoulder for the first time, and almost immediately, I smelled blood. While keeping one hand on the tree for balance, he pushed his victim against the tree with the other hand, so that it wouldn’t be able to escape. Guti removed his teeth from his victim’s shoulder and kissed the man, letting him get a taste of his own blood. Then he sank his teeth into the artery. 

Guti was still pushing the guy against the tree while he sank his teeth into the same wound once again. He increased the pain by using his ability; I noticed because of the man’s expression. Still, the guy did not scream. Guti totally held him in the palm of his hand. He let up on him and nodded at me. Slowly, I approached them. Gulping, I slowly started sucking the blood. José bit into the other side of our victim’s neck and paused, letting the blood flow down his neck. 

Guti looked the man in the eyes before painfully slowly sinking his teeth into the wound once again. While I was – almost greedily – trying to get as much blood as possible, he wasn’t able to hold back either, sinking his teeth into our victim’s neck again and again. After we had finished, Guti just left him there on the spot. One of the others should deal with it. I stared at the bloodbath we had caused, licking the rest of the blood from my lips. I couldn’t take my eyes of the body.

“Is everything alright Sergio?” Guti carefully asked me while hugging me from behind. I kept silent. The burning feeling in my throat had vanished – but Nando was still in my thoughts. The blonde vampire sighed deeply before we started to head home. As soon as we entered the house, Iker approached us, looking me up and down with a relieved expression on his face. “Thank God, you’ve eaten something,” he whispered and pulled me into a tight embrace. I just let him do as he pleased without feeling anything. 

Now that my senses had been sharpened again, I could once again feel the pain Nando’s words had caused. I disappeared into my room and, as soon as I was alone, started to cry again. I didn’t know why this affected me so much – I guess because was really important to me and I had fucked it up. It just hurt so damn much.

 

**Fernando’s POV**

Three weeks had passed. Three weeks had passed since I found out about Sergio’s true nature and thinking about it was still giving me the chills: how his friend – Cris – had sucked the drunken man’s blood, how Sergio had been standing nearby, doing nothing to help him. For reasons even I didn’t understand, I went to the guy’s funeral – not many people attended. He had probably been a loner for most of his life. I stood in the shadows, watching the scene from afar. 

Still, I wasn’t feeling great at all. I frequently suffered from nightmares and I missed Sergio. I hated myself for missing him, but I couldn’t really do anything about it. It felt as if all the sun had been taken out of my life, making everything seem just black and white. Sergio had always managed to make me laugh, even when I wasn’t feeling good (after an exhausting shift with Mourinho, for instance) and I missed him with every fiber of my being. It felt as if he had taken everything good with him after I had told him that I never wanted to see him again. I spent every night crying in my bed – I wasn’t really proud of that fact. 

My days consisted of the same old routine: getting up, getting dressed, eating breakfast, working, going to bed. I worked as much overtime as possible in order to avoid the loneliness of my apartment. Everything seemed so gray. I tried my best to banish all thoughts of Sergio from my mind, but never succeeded. I ate less and I guess I was even losing weight. Additionally, I always sported black rings under my eyes – witnesses of my sleepless nights. 

It was December and the days were getting shorter, the sun setting even earlier. At this moment I was walking home from my shift at work. It was so cold that I could see my breath. Shivering, I pulled my jacket closer to my body. Suddenly, I could hear steps and I stopped in my tracks. My heart was pounding like mad and I looked around nervously. However, I didn’t see anyone. I forced myself to take a deep breath and tried to assure myself by thinking that maybe it had been some animal or some drunken teens on their way home. I continued on my way but didn’t get very far. 

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a person had appeared in front of me. I couldn’t make out his face as it was too dark, but the person seemed strangely familiar. “Uhm...,” I started carefully, drawing back a few steps and bumping into another person in the process. I panicked, but before I could even react, the other guy had pressed a wet piece of cloth to my nose. 

I tried to hold my breath, – I was aware that this was chloroform – but my survival instincts were stronger. I took a breath and immediately the world started spinning. Before I could hit the floor, two strong arms caught me. Then everything went black. 


	5. More

**Fernando’s POV**

The first thing I noticed upon waking up was the fact that my hands had been tied behind my back and that I was sitting on some kind of chair. I could move my legs freely and blinked a few times before looking around the room. It looked like I was being kept in some kind of dungeon in a basement. A small barred window let in a few rays of sunshine and a bed that didn’t look very comfortable had been pushed against the wall.

As I turned my attention to the door, I flinched. A man I had never seen in my life was leaning against the wall next to door and grinned. It was this kind of grin that scared me: a predatory grin. Yes, you could call it like that. He had dark eyes, very short hair and a dark beard. With his arms crossed in front of his chest, he eyed me with a mixture of amusement and… hunger on his face. Oh God, please no! I stared at the guy in horror, but he only grinned back.

In this moment, the door opened, and another person entered the room. My heart nearly stopped for real this time. He was dark-haired, tall, muscular, perfect in terms of appearance, dark-eyed, very attractive and very deadly – Cris, the guy who sucked someone’s blood in front of my eyes three weeks ago, the guy who had still had blood on his chin and whose face was constantly appearing in my nightmares. At the moment, however, he seemed pretty normal. He was wearing a tight-fitting white t-shirt and a pair of Armani-jeans. He also had two silver diamond studs in his ears and a matching grin on his face.

“Fernando,” he said and a shiver ran down my spine. “How nice it is to finally meet you. Sese has told us so much about you.” His Spanish was pretty good, but I still noticed a slight Portuguese accent. I flinched at the mention of Sergio’s name, and my heart was still beating way too fast as I stared at Cris in panic. Cris only rolled his eyes in annoyance and plunked himself down on the bed. The other guy – probably a vampire as well – was still standing at the door, quietly observing us.

“For the love of God, calm down! I am not planning on hurting you and Karim won’t hurt you either,” he then said, causing the guy at the door to grin. So this was Karim, apparently. Good to know. “We just wanted to talk to you without you trying to make a run for it straight away,“ he added. I took a deep breath, and somehow... somehow deep down I believed him. He had that kind of aura which would have made me do anything he wanted at that moment. I was scared by that fact, but at least it didn’t seem like he was lying to me.

“What do you want to talk about?” I quietly asked, and he grinned. “You are still asking that? And here I was thinking that you must already be aware of it. It’s about Sergio.” Once again, I flinched at his mention of that name. “I don’t want to talk about Sergio,” I whispered, and Karim raised an eyebrow. “That’s a lie,” he said with a grin, and I stared at him in amazement. Cris started to laugh as he saw my shocked expression and leaned back comfortably. “Karim’s special ability allows him to detect if someone is lying or telling the truth,” he explained. “You can’t lie to him; that’s impossible.”

I was still staring at the vampire next to the door with a mix of bewilderment and disbelief before slowly turning to Cris. “Special ability?” I asked tonelessly, causing him to raise an eyebrow. “You don’t know that? Every vampire has their own special ability in addition to super human speed, strength and immortality. Well, every vampire except Luka and Marcelo. We don’t really know what went wrong there." He exchanged a brief glance with Karim and laughed.

Before I could even ask who the hell Marcelo and Luka were, Cris continued talking. “I see that we’ll have to start right at the beginning. Anyway, it seems that we haven’t introduced ourselves yet. I am Cristiano, but call me Cris. The nice Frenchman over there is Karim.” Cris nodded at the vampire next to the door and I nodded slowly. I highly doubted that he was _nice_. “Nando,” I whispered and Cristiano started laughing. “We know, we know. You are the reason why Sergio has been pestering us for the last three weeks. He has become insufferable.” I gulped and lowered my gaze. Sergio.

Cris, who had, of course, noticed the change in my mood, turned serious as well. “He misses you,” he said quietly, his dark eyes looking at me intently. “He hadn’t been eating for days and had José not forced him to accompany him on a hunt, he would still not have eaten anything to this day. He cries every night, and bitches at us every day. It’s hard to stand him at the moment.” He missed me. Sergio missed me. My heart sank, and I tried to swallow the lump in my throat.

“He is freaking aggressive; he constantly overreacts because of trivialities, and he suffers terribly at night. We are all nervous wrecks. That’s where you come into play.“ Cris‘ eyes started to glint, and I anxiously squirmed on the chair, the ropes burning into the flesh of my wrists. “That’s not my problem,” I finally muttered. “He lied to me.” Karim let out a deep sigh. “Both of those statements were lies. How often do we have to tell you that lying to us is futile?” he asked, and I lowered my gaze.

“Besides, he didn’t lie to you. He just didn’t tell you what he was; that’s quite a difference,” Cris added. “His parents really are dead, he actually works as a barkeeper in the club from time to time, and taking off the ring does indeed bring him bad luck.“ I stared at the Portuguese in bewilderment, and he grinned faintly. “He told us everything, and he also said that he never wanted to lie to you.” “Also, this obviously is your problem as well!” Karim was looking at me in disbelief and I gulped. “No, I-“

“Don’t tell me that you don’t want him! I know that you are lying,“ the Frenchman threatened while throwing me dark looks. A shiver ran down my spine, and I bit my lower lip. My fear had returned, and I took a deep breath to calm down. “Fine, I want him, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is a vampire,” I eventually got out, not being able to hide the defiant undertone in my voice. Cris rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Has he ever hurt you?” he asked me. “No, but-“ “Has he ever tried to hurt you?” “No, but-“ “Has he ever put you in danger in any way?” “No, he only-“ “Has he ever given you any reason not to trust him?” “Well, actually-“ “See?” Cris was staring at me intentlym and I lowered my gaze. “Still, it doesn’t happen every day that you find out about your boyfriend being a vampire,” I muttered, and Cris nodded.

“I know, but you still should have given him time to explain everything to you. Since I first met him, he’s never shown such an interest in anybody but you – okay, with the exception of Iker, but he’s his best friend, that doesn’t count. Trust me, you mean a lot to him.” “Are you sure?” I asked, my voice shaking. I hated myself for it. I didn’t want to appear weak in front of Cris and Karim. “Are you sure that I’m not just some game to him?” Cris looked at Karim, but he nodded.

“He is telling the truth. He really believes that Sergio would do that.“ Cris sighed deeply once again before pushing himself up and standing right next to me, his brown eyes boring into mine. “Okay, Nando, listen to me carefully. Sergio has done many terrible things, nothing to be proud of, but he has never tried to make a guy fall in love with him in order to kill him afterwards. Okay, he did that once with Jesús, but that was entirely different because they had never been in a relationship, and the whole thing had only lasted for about a week. Never mention that to him; he reacts quite badly if someone mentions Jesús.” Cris laughed quietly, and I just stared at him in disbelief, unable to say anything.

“But he cares about you. I can see it in his eyes when he’s talking about you. I’ve known him long enough to know when he’s being serious.” I gulped and my thoughts were running wild. Sergio had really made a guy fall in love with him and had killed him afterwards. Still, he did care about me, according to Cris. That was if I trusted Cris’ judgment. Somehow, I did just that.

“And what do you want me to do now?“ I quietly asked, and the Portuguese’s face lit up. “That’s the spirit! Talk to each other and mend your relationship. Iker doesn’t know that we’ve brought you here and he will kill us if he finds out, but it’s about time. If Sergio mouths off to me one more time because I am sitting next to him on the couch and accidentally dare to take a breath, I don’t think that I will be able to stay calm.” I wasn’t entirely sure if he meant that, so I let out a careful laugh. Cris grinned. Karim disappeared from the room without making a sound and I stared after him in confusion.

“Where is he going?” I hesitantly asked. “He’s getting Sergio.” Cris sat down on the bed again and closed his eyes, a peaceful expression on his face. “Oh, and calm down. Your heart is beating so fast that I don’t even know if that’s still healthy. He won’t hurt you, you’ll see.” I stared at him and although his eyes were closed, he grinned. “I can hear that, you know?”

In any other situation I would have laughed at this, but this situation was just too creepy. Cris had a relaxed look on his face, looking as if he was about to watch a movie. He wasn’t acting like the cruel vampire who drank drunken people’s blood, not at all. Well, he still was able to hear my heartbeat.

“Oh, by the way…“ Cris opened his eyes again and stood up, standing next to me within a second. “I am planning to make Sergio... suffer a bit to pay him back for those three weeks.” The grin on his face scared me, and I stared at him in panic. “What?” I croaked. Somehow, my voice had failed me. Cris only grinned but didn’t manage an answer as someone started yelling in front of the dungeon’s door.

“Fucking shit, I swear by anything that is holy, Karim, if that’s another one of your idiotic plans to get me to eat or make me get over Nando, I’ll kill you. Just because you are bored doesn’t mean that you have to annoy me all the time, _madre mia_!” “If you would excuse me for a moment.” Cris winked at me and slipped through the door as fast as lightning. I was sitting on my chair completely paralyzed. He closed the door behind him while I was trying to control my breathing.

“Oh, don’t worry, Sese,” Cris’ gentle voice announced a second later. “I’ve only brought you here so that you can greet our new prisoner.” His words were followed by deathly silence and Cris opened the door again, still grinning. I held my breath as I spied Sergio, whose facial expression changed from anger to disbelief upon seeing me. “Nando,” he whispered coarsely. He was in front of me in a second, staring at me in disbelief. “Hello Sergio.” I managed a small smile, but he was still staring at me.

Suddenly he abruptly turned around, staring at Cris with anger in his eyes. “What the hell is he doing here, Cris?” he hissed, but the Portuguese only laughed. Suddenly, he was right behind me, and I started trembling as I felt his warm breath tickling my ear. “Oh, I don’t know. I was hungry and thought that I would share with you, _hermano_. We could also leave him to Xabi. I am not quite sure yet.” He winked at me, and my heart was in my mouth. Shit.

“But honestly, he is too precious to be given to Xabi, don’t you think? He wouldn’t even appreciate that.” Cris’ long fingers were slowly tracing my carotid artery and I swallowed, my mouth feeling dry. Suddenly, he had once again turned into the vampire who appeared in my nightmares and while I was trying my best not to hyperventilate, Sergio scowled at Cris. “That’s Nando, you Portuguese fool!” he hissed, and I could hear Karim chuckling next to the door.

“Oh, really?” Cris was looking innocently at Sergio. Sergio looked as if he would tear out Cris’ throat at any moment. “Well, you could make him pay for everything he did to you, you know?” His index finger was slowly tracing an artery at my throat from top to bottom, causing me to whimper quietly. It was a mystery to me how someone could change their personality this quickly, and it scared me shitless. At the moment I wasn’t even sure if he would hurt me or not. This situation just seemed too real.

“Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, if you don’t get away from Nando this instant, I will tear out your heart with my own hands!“ Sergio growled, sounding absolutely menacing, and while I flinched at the sound of his voice, Cris was just looking at him, unfazed. “Oh, are we calling each other by our full names now, Sergio Ramos García?” he asked in amusement but backed away nonetheless. I felt relieved after hearing that. “Cris, I’m warning you...,” Sergio growled, and the Portuguese had to grin. “So, no killing him then?”

„No!“ Sergio stared at him incredulously before gently freeing my hands from the shackles, running his fingers up and down my maltreated wrists. “Gods, I’m so sorry…,“ he whispered. “The guys can be such idiots sometimes… I’ll bring you back home, and then I’ll leave you alone. Don’t worry. They won’t lay a finger on you ever again.“ He avoided my gaze and at this moment, I noticed how broken he really was: the dark circles under his eyes, the worn out expression in his eyes, his whole posture; however, he was still shooting murderous looks at Cris while pushing me behind his back a little.

“Be glad if I don’t tell Iker about any of this,” he growled, but Cris only laughed. “Tell him what? That I brought back your boyfriend so that you can finally talk again? Believe me or not, but he will be grateful for this,” he responded impassively. Sergio stared at him in anger before turning to me with a sigh. “Can we talk?“ he asked quietly, and I nodded, still hesitating a bit. “Hallelujah, wonders never cease!” Cris yelled, but Sergio just flipped him off. Then, he carefully took my hand in his and pulled me in the direction of the door.

“You seriously want to get him out this way?” Cris’ desperate voice made Sergio stop in his tracks. He frowned. “How else do you expect me to get him out of here, Ronaldo?” he hissed. “I don’t plan on staying here with him.” “Oh, right, just walk through a club full of vampires – one of them being Iker, who will surely be pleased if you appear with the guy that’s responsible for your aggressive, not very nice and quite scary demeanor, and who is, in addition, HUMAN. He will take it quite well, I reckon,” Cris said sarcastically while leaning against the wall in a fake show of indifference. “He will be thrilled.”

“Oh, fuck you, Cris.“ Sergio sighed in annoyance and ran a hand through his hair before throwing the Portuguese a helpless glance. “What do you expect me to do then?” he asked with resignation in his voice, letting go of my hand and plopping down on the bed. “Well... Both Guti and Iker are at the club and it wouldn’t be to your advantage if they knew about Nando being here. Even if you feel better now, they won’t need to know the reason for it. Iker would only forbid you from associating with him, and I see where he’s coming from, to be honest. If I have to live through three weeks like the last three ever again, I’ll lose my mind.” Sergio rolled his eyes, while impatiently beckoning Cris to continue with a weave of his hand. “Yeah, I’ve got that by now. Well?”

“It’s Danny’s and Álvie’s shift today, which means that the front door isn’t an option. Besides, Raúl and Xabi know that we are keeping a human in here; they have already noticed his scent. This leaves the emergency exit in the cellar. If Xabi or Raúl ask, we will tell them that we killed the human. In the meantime, Karim and I will distract Iker and Guti. Got it?” Cris eagerly explained, and while my head was spinning because of all those names without matching faces, Sergio nodded. “Alright, got it, and... thank you.” Cris only nodded, and Sergio pulled me out of the door.

“Trust me, stay close to me and be as quiet as you can,” he whispered intently. He led me through a maze of underground corridors. I tried to do as told, but as soon as we stepped outside, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was already evening and Sergio looked at me with worry in his eyes. “Is everything okay? Are you hungry or something like that?“ My stomach chose this exact moment to rumble, causing Sergio to smile faintly. “Come on.” I followed him to his car without uttering a word. Our relationship was still kind of strange, but did I still fear him? There was a bit of fear, but it was minimal and I could push it away easily.

Cris’ words were still echoing in my head. He had told me that Sergio still cared about me, and the Portuguese could be quite convincing – it was Cristiano who I feared more. “Where are we going?” I quietly asked. Sergio was focused on the street while answering me.

“Your place. I thought... well, I don’t know how to cook very well, but maybe we could order takeout and talk a little bit?“ I nodded wordlessly and for the rest of the ride, nobody said a word, which was anything but normal. Sergio parked the car in front of my flat, and we made our way upstairs. I switched on the lights and dialed the number of the delivery service while Sergio sat down on the couch in my living room. After ordering pizza and getting it delivered, I carefully sat down next to Sergio and started eating my pizza.

“Do you want some?” I asked him out of the blue. Looking surprised, the vampire looked at me and then at the food before nodding hesitantly. “Okay.” I gave him a slice. He took a bite, chewed and swallowed it. I looked at him expectantly, and he grinned faintly. “I can’t feel it in my stomach. That’s quite strange,” he explained, and I frowned. “So, you only live off ...” “Blood,” Sergio completed my sentence with a nod, and I couldn’t help but cringe. “Ugh, gross.”

He only grinned but didn’t say anything else. I took another deep breath before looking him straight into the eye – I almost got lost in them within an instant. I was fascinated by them, and they were looking at me with such fondness that I couldn’t stop myself from taking Sergio’s hand. He grinned, and I swallowed. Everything about this was so strange and crazy. “Have you ever compelled me?” I quietly asked, but Sergio immediately shook his head. “Never,” he answered, sounding totally serious. “Not a single time.”

I let out an audible breath and felt my spirits rise a bit. “Cris said something about special abilities that all vampires have, except two...” “Luka and Marcelo.” I nodded. “Exactly. For example, Karim knows if someone is lying or telling the truth… What is Cris‘ ability? What about yours?“ Sergio thought about it for a moment before raising his hand so that his palm was facing the ceiling. Before I even got the chance to ask anything, small flames flared up, and I flinched back with a start. Sergio turned his hand around, but the fire stayed close to his skin. He didn’t seem fazed by it at all. The flames died down again, and I carefully touched his hand – the temperature was normal.

“That’s impossible...,” I whispered while Sergio was chuckling quietly. “Not in my world.” “Doesn’t fire kill vampires?” I asked with a frown, and he nodded. “It does, but I seem to be the exception to the exception. It just tingles a bit.” “Hmm...”I stared at his hand in fascination before shaking my head and looking at him once again. “How do you do that?” I asked and he shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s intuition, instinct, whatever you want to call it. I feel the fire, and over the years I’ve learned to control it.” “That’s madness...,” I whispered. “What about Cris?”

Now it was Sergio’s turn to frown. “He is... how should I explain that... he has a special kind of aura that draws people to him, like a magnet. It automatically compels you in such a strong way that you would do absolutely anything he asked of you. You would also be drawn to him without him doing much. On top of that, he has the best self-restraint, along with Iker, Guti and Fábio. I knew it! There had been something strange about the guy. I decided to keep asking questions as long as he was still being this honest.

“What’s the big deal about the ring? You mentioned that it would cause you bad luck if you took it off...” Deep in thought, Sergio was playing with the silver ring. After a short while he answered. “It protects me from the sun. It would be impossible to go out during the day without it. All of us have such a ring. It has been enchanted somehow, and well... we would burn to death in the sun without it.” He smiled a faint smile, and I slowly nodded.

“What about your eyes? Sometimes they are really bright and at other times they are completely dark…“ “They change color depending on how thirsty we are. If we‘ve just eaten, they are bright. The longer we go without food, the darker they get. It also gets more and more difficult to control ourselves in the presence of humans.” I gulped at his answer and took a brief look at his eyes. Sergio looked at me with worry in his eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ve never-“ “I know,” I interrupted him, and he nodded. “Any other questions?”

“Yeah… who is that Iker guy you’ve been talking about? He sounds pretty... dangerous.” Sergio leaned back and sighed. “Iker is… he is the one who turned me, and he is also the leader of our clan. He is my best friend and also the oldest vampire in Spain. He takes care of all the laws and other important things, and well... he’s practically a saint. I’m serious. Compared to Guti or... me; he is less… cruel?“ He sighed and lowered his gaze at the end of this monologue.

“Oh...” I briefly looked at Sergio, stopped myself from asking the next question, and got a bit closer to him. “I’m sorry that I just ran away back then...,” I whispered and hesitantly put my head on his shoulder. “I just panicked and well...” Sergio looked at me in surprise when he noticed how close I was. Then, he broke into a smile and carefully put his muscular and heavily-tattooed arm around my shoulders.

“That’s okay,” he quietly stated. “I guess I’ve broken about a hundred vampire laws because I told you all those things and because I am in contact with a human, which is prohibited according to our law, but you can’t even begin to imagine how little I care about that right now.” He smiled, and I smiled right back at him. “Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you for telling me,“ I added when I saw his confused gaze. “I mean, I’m still a bit scared of you, and I don’t know how this will turn out, but... I want to give us a shot.”

Sergio, who had looked a bit worried at the start of my explanation, was grinning widely now and wordlessly pulled me into a soft kiss. As my lips met his, it felt as if I’d finally returned home. Everything felt so familiar, and my heart was beating faster again. Maybe our relationship wouldn’t have much of a future, but I wouldn’t – and I couldn’t – lose Sergio again.


	6. Sergio

**Sergio’s POV**

“They know,“ Cris whispered as soon as I entered the house, causing a frown to appear on my face. “Who knows what?” I seemed to have posed my question in vain as I heard Iker’s loud and rather angry voice ringing through the house. “SERGIO!” he roared, and I sighed. Just great. “I’ll see you later.“ I waved at Cris before making my way up to the library. A rather pissed-looking Iker, and Guti, who – unlike my best friend –was lying on the couch looking quite relaxed, were already waiting for me.

 

“You,” the older of the two snarled, and I perked my eyebrows up. “I?” “Would you maybe be so kind to explain to me why Fernando was at our club,” he hissed, and I couldn’t suppress an annoyed groan. “No, I won’t, because that wasn’t even my fault to begin with. Karim and Cris had abducted him, I didn’t know anything about it,” I grumbled, leaning against the wall and crossing my arms in front of my chest. “How do you even know that Nando was here, anyway?”

 

“Karim,” Guti supplied with a grin, and I rolled my eyes. I should have known! Damn Frenchman that couldn’t keep his mouth shut in the presence of Guti. “I suppose you’ve talked,” Iker asked me in a challenging tone of voice, and I nodded. “We have.” “It feels like everything is back to normal between you two again. It was about time,” Guti butted in. He was still grinning like an idiot. Iker groaned in despair and ran a hand through his hair.

 

“Just great,” he murmured sarcastically before taking the glass, which was standing next to him on the bureau and taking a sip. “Listen, Sergio. It doesn’t matter what you’ve talked about. You can’t be in contact with him any longer. You saw how this turned out, and I won’t be able to deal with you in such a… state again.” Before I could contradict him in any way, I heard Guti laughing in the background, and I bit back my not-so-nice answer.

 

“Oh Iker, that must have been the worst thing you could have possibly said. You know Sergio. If you tell him ‘Sergio, no,’ he understands ‘Sergio, yes’. You’ve made it even worse,“ he said with amusement in his voice. Iker frowned. “I... you will listen to me, Sese, right?“ he asked me, his voice sounding a bit uncertain. I grinned.

 

“You know me, Iker. Have I ever listened to you before?“ I answered back, and Iker stared at me for a moment before groaning and downing his glass. “It’s your fault that I will become an alcoholic someday, Sergio,” he muttered. “Still, that’s the damn law; you can’t be in contact with humans if you don’t plan on killing them. I can’t just change the law because of you.”

 

“Gods, Iker, stop always being so stuffy and terribly responsible,” Guti huffed in this moment, causing me to flinch. “I thought I had talked you out of this during the last 700 years, but it seems that I was mistaken. It may well be true that the law prohibits us from being in contact with humans and that Sergio will face huge problems if this comes to light, but he is one of your best friends and your family. It seems that Nando makes him happy, so you should just fuck your sense of duty and your responsibilities, and see to it that Sergio is happy. You know that I am right, so stop scowling at me. It won’t wash anyway and you know it. Family above all – didn’t you tell me the exact same thing over 500 years ago when I turned Raúl?”

 

After listening to Guti’s outburst, Iker closed his eyes for a second and let out a deep sigh before running a hand through his hair. “Okay, keep meeting Fernando for all I care. We will see how this will work out. Still, this is important, so listen to me carefully. Promise me that you won’t kill him. We’ve got enough dead people as it is because of Mourinho. We can’t have even one more.

 

Besides, and this is even more important, you have to promise me to never let Xavi know that I’ve given you my permission to be in contact with a human you don’t plan to kill – he would hold it against me for the next 1000 years; and also,...” Iker was looking at me intently. “promise me, for God’s sake Sergio, in the name of all Gods you deem holy, and only this once that you please won’t do anything stupid, please! Do you understand?” His gaze seemed to bore into mine, and I rolled my eyes before nodding and grinning.

 

“Don’t worry, Santo, I won’t cause any trouble, you know me,” I responded and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. “Yes, that’s exactly the problem: I know you,” Iker grumbled, and Guti laughed quietly. “Just trust him for once. He’s already 426 years old; he should know what he is doing.” “He should, but he doesn’t,” Iker muttered before letting out a sigh and walking to the door.

 

“We have three new bodies. They are near the Bernabéu this time. I’ve sent Álvaro and Xabi there to take a look. Xavi has also reached out to us; some mysterious murders happened in Barcelona as well, and his boys had had nothing to do with it. Keep an eye on Fernando, alright?” Iker turned to me, and I nodded. “I will. Have you found anything yet?”

 

“Hardly.” Guti sighed and sat up, his blue eyes fixing Iker’s empty glass with a contemplative look. “Raúl has seen Mourinho as well, and there’s something strange about one of his employees.” “Juan,” I supplied, but Guti only shook his head. “No, the other one – Diego Costa or something like that. We’ve taken a look at the whole thing, and he is spending a lot of time alone with our Portuguese friend after his shift. There’s something fishy about it.” “I’ll ask Nando sometime,” I murmured before walking to the door as well. “Is there anything else?”

 

“Yes.” Iker shot me a brief look, and the hint of a grin appeared on his face. “If you are in such a foul mood you’ve displayed for the last three weeks ever again, I will personally see to it that you will spend the next 500 years in Barcelona with Xavi.” Guti let out a bark, and I shot Iker an angry look “Thanks, I love you too Iker,” I grumbled before disappearing from the room.

 

“That’s just UNBELIEVABLE!” As soon as I entered the kitchen, Cris stared at me in disbelief, and I raised my eyebrows. “What’s so incredible?” “No matter what you are up to, Iker always forgives you, and now he even gives you the implicit permission to be in a relationship with a human!” “You and Guti have also been in a relationship with a human,” I reminded him while pouring myself a glass of blood.

 

“The law prohibiting contact with humans has only existed since 1780, Sergio,” Xabi, who had just entered the kitchen and was now pouring himself a glass as well, butted in. “Cris and José had entered their respective relationships with Fábio

 Raúl before the law was passed, so there weren’t any problems.” I rolled my eyes and plunked myself down on the bench next to Marcelo, who had been watching the whole thing with amusement. Now, he took a sip from his own glass.

 

“How would I remember all those dates?” I grumbled, earning myself a stern gaze from Xabi. “It would do you some good. It’s our history, after all. It’s quite important too.“ „Yeah, yeah.“ I stopped his lecture with a wave of my hand, and grinned at Marcelo and Cris. „So, Cris, have you got some advice about being in a relationship with a human? How did you manage not to kill Fábio?” I asked the Portuguese, being half-serious, half-amused, and he rolled his eyes.

 

“If you remember correctly: I DID kill him, technically,” he then grumbled. I stopped him with a weave of my hands, leaning against Marcelo. “Turning him doesn’t count. I was thinking about the general idea. Do you have some experience you’d like to share with us?” I grinned at him suggestively, and Marcelo nearly choked on his blood whiskey because he had to laugh so hard.

 

“Sergio!” Xabi shot me a disapproving look, and I had to laugh as well while Cris’ angry eyes were boring into mine.” “Seriously, sometimes I wonder why I am even friends with you,“ the Basque murmured, and I grinned. “Because deep in your heart you actually love me; because I’m your brother, and because you’ve got the need to protect me – like almost everyone in this house, apparently.”

 

“Yeah right, deep, deep, VERY deep in my heart,“ Xabi murmured. “It’s odd that you of all people are the oldest among us four.” “Tell me about it,” Chris muttered, and I grinned. “Thank you, guys. I love you too,” I replied with a laugh before kissing each of their cheeks.

  


**Fernando’s POV**

“Say, Sese…“ I carefully ran my fingers over the tattoos on his arm, and he smiled. “Yeah?” Two weeks had passed since our _talk_ , and things had been surprisingly good. Okay, some things were still a bit strange to me: Sergio’s superhuman speed and the fact that he didn’t need to breath and that he didn’t have a heartbeat – whereas I did. But I was getting used to it, and he really did his best not to overwhelm me. However, I had wanted to ask him a question since the day we talked, and now I finally found the courage to ask. “How come you are a vampire? I mean, how did you become one?“

 

Almost immediately, Sergio stiffened, and I gulped. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ “No, no, it’s okay, really,” Sergio interrupted me quickly, and pulled me even closer to him. “It’s just... well, there have definitely been nicer moments in my life than those few days, although I am really thankful to Iker.” I looked at him questioningly, and he sighed before starting to tell me his story.

  


**Sergio – 1588 – somewhere near the coast of England**

“I still don’t understand why King Phillip wants to attack England. Maria Stuart is dead; there isn’t any catholic heiress to the throne left to rescue,” I murmured, and Miguel, who was standing next to me at the reeling, laughed quietly. “That’s certainly true. However, this is also about the Spanish hegemony in the world. Do you remember the uprisings in the Netherlands that had been supported by England after we had subjugated it?” I nodded with a frown, and he continued.

 

“The King thinks that by conquering England we could also get the uprisings in the Netherlands under control.” “That’s totally stupid,” I commented and Miguel let out a laugh. “Don’t let Duke Sidonia hear of this. Cheer up! This is our last battle for the Spanish Armada, and then we will be on our way home.” I smiled at his words, and thinking about home made me feel warm all over.

 

My parents, my brother and my sister were waiting for me in Camas, Andalucía, and we hadn’t seen each other in nearly two years. “Well, that’s certainly true. Has your wife written to you? How is your son?“ I asked, and Miguel smiled as well. “Ana is doing fine, and Pablo is doing fine as well. He turned three a few days ago.” His eyes were shining when he talked about his little family, and my smile grew even bigger. “Well, congratulations then.” “Thank you.” Miguel grinned. In this moment, someone yelled “Ships in sight!“

 

“Well then…“ With a grim expression on his face, Miguel drew his sword. I did the same. “Let’s conquer England.“ He flashed me a quick grin before joining up with the rest of our crew. I followed him. The ships of the English were smaller than ours, but that shouldn’t be a problem. We were relying on our close combat skills, on our better canons and on our superior number. Normally, this shouldn’t pose any problem, and if everything went well, I would finally be home in two weeks’ time.

 

However, the battle had lasted for several weeks now and, in the meantime, we had advanced upon the English Channel. Miraculously, the English managed to sink most of our ships. “ _Mierda_!” Miguel cursed as suddenly, a loud roll of thunder could be heard. He reloaded the canon where the two of us were standing. “It’s not like we haven’t had enough problems with those island apes, now even the weather decides to causes us problems,” he grumbled. I had to suppress a grin; his kind of sarcasm was unbelievable.

 

“We can do it! I am sure of that. In a few days time, they will be out of ammunition, and their small nimble ships will be useless then.” “I hope you are right,” Miguel whispered. “I can’t wait to go home. I miss Ana and Pablo.“ He smiled wistfully, and just as I wanted to say something, I was interrupted by a loud bang. Splinters of wood hurtled through the air, and Miguel screamed. Water immediately began gushing out of the hole. Miguel, who had been hit by a cannon ball, was lying next to me – unmoving.

 

“Oh my God”, I whispered. “Miguel? Miguel!” In panic, I tried shaking him, but he wasn’t moving any more. I stared at my friend in disbelief. That couldn’t be. That just couldn’t be true. We both had been with the Armada for nearly five years. We had survived each battle side by side. We had helped and supported each other. He couldn’t be- No. Before I even had the time to react, an Englishman charged down the stairs, and I drew my sword almost instantly. It looked as if they had entered our ship. Well, that sucked.

 

However, I sure as hell wouldn’t go down without a fight. They would pay for killing Miguel, who had a three year old son and a wife waiting for him at home. We fought with grim determination for some time while the Englishman was yelling something in English the whole time. I ignored him. I didn’t see any members of my crew. The water already reached up to our knees, and slowly I was starting to panick. I didn’t pay attention for a short moment, and I screamed – the Englishman’s sword had met with my leg.

 

I backed away as far as my injured foot allowed it, moving up the stairs. On deck, all hell had broken loose. Everyone was fighting their own battle, and they fought for their lives. I noticed that we were pretty close to the shore, and some were even fighting on land. I also noticed that it was possible for me to leave the ship. It would be sinking soon, and I didn’t feel like going down with it. Breathing a sigh of relief, I noticed that the Englishman was no longer on my heels. As I turned around again, another one had already taken his place.

 

Being annoyed and a nervous wreck, I started to fight with him until I felt his sword piercing my stomach. I screamed in pain and – without thinking - ran my own sword directly into his heart. He staggered backwards a few steps, his hand still on his sword, which was coated in my blood. Then, he dropped to the floor and didn’t move anymore. My legs gave out as well, and I lowered myself onto the cold forest soil, my hands still firmly pressing on the wound on my stomach.

 

He must have hit some vital organ because my vision was slowly getting blurry, and I tilted my head back. Breathing was becoming more and more difficult, and I intuitively knew that I would die as well; my family would never see me again. I wheezed and bit my lower lip. The pain was getting unbearable.

 

In this moment, a person suddenly stood in front of me. I didn’t know whether he belonged with the Spanish or the English, but I didn’t really care at this moment. Whoever it was, he would hopefully kill me quickly so that I wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. The person bent down to my level, and I detected brown eyes, brown hair, a three-day beard, and a very worried expression. A cold hand grasped my wrist, and he carefully pushed a sweaty strand of hair out of my face.

 

“What’s your name?” he asked me in Spanish, and he had the most beautiful and most pleasant voice I had ever heard. “Sergio.” My voice was barely more than a whisper, but he seemed to have understood me anyway. I didn’t know who he was or what he wanted but suddenly, my wrist started tingling, and I calmed down considerably. “Please... just kill me,” I whispered inaudibly. I could hardly hear my own voice.

 

“What?!” The Spaniard knit his brows but I didn’t have enough strength left to answer him. He would either kill me or I would continue waiting. Now he frowned before standing up. “José!” he quietly yelled, and not even a second later, a blonde guy stood right next to him. “What’s the matter, Iker?” he asked. His blue eyes looked me over briefly, and I gasped. He had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. The color of his eyes was of such a deep blue that it was almost creepy. He looked like an angel, and maybe he was one – maybe I was so far gone that I had started hallucinating now.

 

The brown-haired man, who apparently was called Iker, nodded in my direction, and José raised his eyebrows. “Him? Why?” Both of them started discussing something in hushed voices. I was far too exhausted to even try listening to them. “Well, then get on with it. I am here if you need me.“ The blonde seemed to suddenly have given in, and the brown-haired guy nodded before kneeling down next to me once again. “Okay, this will hurt like hell, and I am so sorry, but it will all be over soon,” he whispered, and before I could even ask, I saw his fangs. The last thing I remembered was Iker biting me and me screaming in pain.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> breathxx's note concerning this chapter: So, that's some kind of filler-chapter, but you will learn about each character's background story in those kind of chapters - Sergio's story was the first of them :) Each character has a different story, but all of them have similar endings.


	7. Fábio

**Fernando’s POV**

After having finished his story, Sergio didn’t say anything for a long time, and I carefully ran my fingers down his arm. “I... I’m sorry,” I whispered, causing him to look at me in surprise. “What are you sorry for?” “All... of this.“ I made a vague gesture before continuing. “I wouldn’t have asked if I had…,“ I stopped and Sergio smiled a faint smile. “It’s okay. It’s already been over 400 years.”

 

“FOURHUNDRED YEARS?!“ I yelled in shock and he started laughing. “426, to be precise.” “ _Madre mia_ ,” I whispered and ran my fingers through my hair. “Now I feel young.” Sergio let out a laugh before kissing me on the lips. “Poor little _el niño_ ,” he jeered and I grimaced. “Don’t call me _el niño_! I’m not a child anymore!” “To me you are,“ Sergio said in amusement, and I perked my eyebrows up. “I’m sorry that, unlike you, I’m not a grandpa,“ I retorted and he grinned. “Yeah yeah, we’ll continue talking about this in 400 years when you’re as old as I am now.”

 

Silence followed his words, and he stared at me in shock. We had never really talked about the topic of aging. Up until now, we had somehow avoided that particular conversation. “Sorry, Nando, I-,“ he started but I interrupted him. “No, we have to talk about this,” I said quietly and looked sternly at Sergio. “All of this uncertainty and all of these ‘what ifs’ make me go crazy. I…have been thinking about,” I mumbled and Sergio looked at me in surprise. “Becoming a vampire?” I nodded carefully and he sucked in an audible breath – a sure sign that his attention was completely focused on me because he usually didn’t breathe. “Why?”

 

I shrugged and started biting my lower lip “Mostly because of you? Still… I’m scared, you know? What if it doesn’t work out between us? In that case, I would have given up everything to be with you. That’s my biggest fear, to be honest,” I explained, but to my surprise, a trace of a smile played along his lips.

 

“Well, you don’t have to worry about us not working out. I don’t know why, but when a human and a vampire fall in love and the vampire turns the human, their love lasts forever – I guess it’s some kind of defensive mechanism. I don’t really know how that works, but the love won’t fade away. Of course, there might be fights and you might live apart for a while, but you love the other person all the same and nothing will change that. Fábio and Cris, and Guti and Raúl are the best examples.”

 

Deep in thought, I looked at Sergio. That changed everything. “Can I meet one of your vampire friends?” I suddenly asked him and he stared at me in confusion. “Why would you want to do that?” I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know… you always talk about them and, according to Cris, you must have gotten on their nerves quite a bit because of me.” Sergio laughed quietly and shook his head. “Forget it. I don’t trust them if it’s about you,“ he firmly stated and I rolled my eyes at that.

 

“I can look after myself just fine,” I huffed. He smiled. “I believe you, and I trust you as well but, as I said, I don’t trust THEM.” “Oh come on!“ I looked at him pleadingly, but Sergio only shook his head. “No.” “Are all of them that bad?” “No... yes… shit, Nando. I’m just worried, okay?“ he murmured and I smiled. “Hey, I’ve already met Cris and Karim,“ I reminded him and he huffed. “Yes and those two were already more than enough. Of all the guys you could have possibly met you just had to meet Cris... I will think about it, okay?” I nodded and pressed a thank-you-kiss to his lips. ”Thank you.“

 

We had been lying next to each other in silence for quite a while, but I just couldn’t stop thinking. Maybe... Sergio said that two of his vampire friends had also been human before choosing to be turned. Maybe I could talk to them sometime since they should be able to understand my problems. What was so great about my life anyway if I didn’t have Sergio? I had a lousy job, my parents who were living their own lives, and Juan. Well, the thing with Juan would maybe turn out to be a problem, but I should be able to figure it out. Faced with so many thoughts, I couldn’t keep my eyes open and fell asleep, sleeping soundly without dreaming.

 

When I woke up again, Sergio was gone, but he had sent me a text.

 

_“Hey Nando, did you sleep well? I’m sorry for taking off like that but we had to deal with some things – vampire matters – and Iker needed my help. We will be meeting Fábio later today. Text me when you’re awake.”_

 

Fábio, then. Wasn’t that Cris’ boyfriend? Thinking about Cris made me feel a bit queasy. His two-faced personality was still scaring me. This Fábio must be able to bear with a lot, or he must have lived through a lot himself. Maybe he was just like Cris? But somehow Sergio seemed to trust him enough to let me meet him. I responded to his text, took a quick shower and threw on some clean clothes. Less than five minutes later, Sergio stood in front of my door with a grin on his face.

 

“Hey,” he said, and gave me a quick kiss, making me smile as well. “Hey, where are we meeting him?” “In a small café, a little outside of Madrid. No one will disturb us there. Come on.“ Was that just my imagination, or was Sergio actually feeling a bit nervous? I followed him to his car. The car ride was a silent affair, but it was a pleasant kind of silence. “He is really nice,” Sergio suddenly said while parking the car, and I had to smile, feeling a bit nervous all of a sudden. All my previous encounters with vampires hadn’t been that pleasant.

 

I followed Sergio into the small cafe where he headed straight for a single table. Someone was already there. I eyed the other vampire inconspicuously while they were greeting each other. He was shorter than Sergio and Cris, had blonde hair with highlights, dark-brown eyes that were observing me carefully, and a wispy beard. He smiled at me. “You must be Nando... a pleasure to meet you. I’m Fábio.” He held out his hand for me to shake, which I hesitantly did. His body temperature was a few degrees below Sergio’s at most. I sat down, facing him.

 

Sergio stayed close to me, causing Fábio to roll his eyes. “Come on, Sese, get lost. I think it will be easier for Nando if he can talk to me alone. I won’t hurt him,” he said, and Sergio hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly. “Maybe you’re right, but I’m warning you, Fábio! Touch him and I’ll kill you with my own hands.” While his threat sent a shiver down my spine, Fabio only laughed, and Sergio vanished after giving me a quick kiss.

 

The vampire once again turned his attention to me, and his gaze was, for some strange reason, not as unpleasant as Cris‘ or Karim’s. It was somewhat softer and not as forceful. “I heard that you’ve already met my boyfriend. You’ll have to excuse him; Cris acts a bit impulsively sometimes.” He chuckled and I just stared at him. Somehow, I had imagined him in a different way. I had imagined that, next to Cris, he would totally fade into the background, but Fábio rather looked like he could very well take care of himself without his boyfriend.

 

“So... I’ve heard that you’re entertaining the idea of becoming one of us?” Fábio smiled at me openly, and leaned back in his chair. I nodded slowly. “I’ve been thinking about it, yeah. Well, and I knew that you and…,“ I paused. What was the other guy’s name again? “Raúl?” Fábio suggested and I nodded. “Right. I thought that because you and Raúl chose to be turned after having fallen in love with a vampire, the both of you – or just you – could help me with that and answer a few questions?” I hesitantly asked. Fábios smile grew even bigger, and I could see his perfectly white teeth. “Sure, ask away.”

 

While I was gathering my thoughts, I pushed my fingers through my hair. My head was full of questions, and I had a hard time deciding where to start. “How did you and Cris meet?” I eventually asked him, even though I knew how cliché that sounded. Fábio only chuckled. “Do you have time?” he asked in amusement, and started talking after I had nodded.

  

**Fábio – 1637 – Vila do Conde – Portugal**

“A double whiskey and your name,” a pleasant voice rang out and I looked up. A guy my age was smiling at me widely. His rather dark, brown eyes seemed to pierce me with their gaze. I eyed him skeptically: black hair, tall, muscular, and expensive clothes. Just great, another one of those rich seafarers that thought they could get away with anything.

 

“I’ll give you the whiskey in a moment, but you won’t get the name,” I curtly answered and reached for a clean glass. He perked his eyebrows up and looked a little bit surprised, but I didn’t really give a damn at that moment. If he wanted to hit on somebody, he could just take one of the whores at the port or one of those who had been staring at him the whole evening – men and women all the same.

 

I handed him the whiskey, and when I wanted to turn around, he reached for my wrist and held me back. A shiver ran down my spine as he touched me. His hand was cold like ice and he was looking at me intently. “Not so fast,” he whispered and I raised an eyebrow.

 

“If you would excuse me, I got work to do,” I retorted in annoyance and broke free from his grasp, turning to the next customer. He looked baffled, but that wasn’t really my problem. I served the other guests – most of them were ordinary sailors who visited my pub before setting sail the next day. Just before midnight, I took a quick break and went outside to smoke. I leaned against the cold wall of the pub, took a drag of my cigarette and closed my eyes.

 

“You still haven’t told me your name.” I opened my eyes and groaned in annoyance. The guy from before was standing right in front of me, looking at me with a mixture of curiosity and something that I couldn’t place. I rolled my eyes. “I’ve already told you that my name is not yours to know,” I grumbled and took another drag of my cigarette. He darted me a quick look and grinned.

 

“You do know that tobacco is bad for your health, don’t you?” he asked and I shrugged my shoulders. “None of your business.” He sighed deeply before holding out his hand. “I am Cristiano Ronaldo. And you…?“ He looked at me questioningly, and I threw my cigarette onto the floor, put it out and looked at his hand he was still holding out. “You are not my type,” I finished dryly. Unmoved by his attempts at being friendly, I just left him standing there and disappeared into the pub once again. Seriously, who did he think he was? Just because he was good-looking and everyone thought that he was great didn’t mean that I had to like him.

 

The next evening, he was there once again. This time, I ignored him from the start and told Henrique to serve him – he was as taken with him as all the others, and it was starting to annoy me.”I don’t understand why you don’t just talk to him,” he said when we were alone in the kitchen for a moment. I only rolled my eyes, decided against an explanation and left the kitchen.

 

“Why do you dislike me anyway?” Cristiano’s voice made me look up and I sighed deeply. “I know guys just like you, and they always cause trouble,” I muttered before pushing a beer over to the old sailor a few seats away. Cristiano sighed, and ran his fingers through his hair. “At least tell me your name,” he pleaded, his brown eyes looking at me imploringly, but I only huffed in contempt. “No.”

 

In this moment, the door to the kitchen opened, and Henrique’s head appeared. “Fábio, can you come here for a moment?” I mentally face-palmed myself and groaned inaudibly. Cristiano quietly laughed. “So, it’s Fábio then?” I ignored him.

He came every day of the following week, every single evening, and he always tried to start a conversation with me. Although I was impressed by his persistence – I had never paid him any attention after all –, he was still annoying. He was really getting on my nerves. I had enough problems as it was, and I wasn’t keen on adding Cristiano Ronaldo to those as well.

 

“I don’t understand you,” said ‘maybe-soon-to-be-problem’ suddenly said as I wordlessly handed him his whiskey. I wanted to turn away but stopped myself. Still, I didn’t answer him. Up until know, I had succeeded in keeping him out of my thoughts by ignoring him. I didn’t want my efforts to go to waste. “I have money and you would lack nothing, yet you won’t even talk to me.”

 

In this moment, I finally had enough. Filled with rage, I turned around and glared at him. “You think that’s the problem?” I hissed and he flinched. He probably hadn’t expected such a violent reaction on my part. “I don’t want your money! I have a great life, even without you! Yes, I may not be rich and I scramble to support myself, but that doesn’t mean that I would just fuck the first rich guy that came along and promised me the world. I can manage quite well without you, thank you very much,” I growled before turning around and disappearing into the kitchen.

 

Breathing heavily, I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. That just couldn’t be happening – this arrogant... argh! I took a deep breath and took a swig from the whiskey bottle standing on the table next to me. My throat was on fire and I started coughing. Maybe my life was quite simple, and I didn’t have a lot of money, but that didn’t mean that I was dependent on his money. I was too proud to ever be dependent on such a man. Never would I ever stoop so low.

 

“I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean it like that.” I barely managed to stifle a frightened scream when Cristiano was suddenly standing in front of me. He had entered the kitchen without making a sound and was now looking at me apologetically. I inaudibly sighed, shot him a dirty look and bit back a snarky comment.

 

“It’s just that... I don’t know how I can prove to you that I’m really not a bad guy,” he continued and I rolled my eyes. “Your statement from before wasn’t really helping,” I grumbled and he gulped. “I know, but it’s just that... I have never really had any problems with getting what I wanted before-“

 

“You don’t say,” I interrupted him sarcastically before wearily running my fingers through my hair. “I accept your apology, but please just leave me alone, alright?” That being said, I left him standing there and went back inside the bar. Unlike him, I had to work hard for a living.

 

Two days had passed, and Cristiano was still complying with my wishes, or at least to some extent. Though he still came to the bar, he no longer tried to talk to me. He was only watching me from afar, but I could live with that. Meanwhile it had turned two in the morning and the last guests – including Cristiano – had left. I locked the pub before heading home.

 

My small house was situated a bit outside the city, about half an hour’s walk from the pub. I had never liked the dark narrow alleys, but I had to pass through them to get home. I didn’t have a choice. I wasn’t really scared; nothing had ever happened to me during the last few years, but I still had a bad feeling.

 

Suddenly, somebody bumped into me, causing me to stumble. I turned around, but before I could even react, a fist connected with my face. I gasped in surprise. When I started to fight back, the other one – it was two guys – kicked me in my stomach, and I wheezed when dropping onto the floor. Both of them continued to strike me. I was well aware that they were going to rob me after finishing me off. Just as the other guy was about to kick my head – I was bleeding profoundly and was breathing quite shallowly – he was yanked back and thrown against the opposite wall, where he then lay unmoving.

 

His buddy stared at his friend in horror before suddenly being pressed against the wall. When I took a closer look, I recognized Cristiano, who was flashing his eyes at the thief with a murderous look on his face. He broke his neck with a quick motion, and I quietly gasped in shock. Cristiano turned to face me, but before I could do anything, he ran to the other guy, who had sat up but was still in a daze, with superhuman speed.

 

Christiano let out a feral growl before breaking that guy’s neck as well. Then, he suddenly stood next to me once again. I backed away – as best as I could, considering my injuries – and coughed, spitting a bit of blood in the process. His eyes turned almost black when he saw the blood, but they still watched me in concern while I was fighting looming unconsciousness. “What the hell...,” I mumbled, and Cristiano carefully ran his fingers down my arm. “Hush,” he whispered before picking me up and carrying me to my house with superhuman speed.

 

I couldn’t even ask about the whys and wherefores anymore; my body hurt too much to do that. He carefully placed me on my bed, and I wheezed. Cristiano watched me with an expression of concern before looking deeply into my eyes. “I don’t really want to do that, and I promise you that I won’t do this ever again, but it is necessary right now. Sleep,” he urged me, and before I knew what was happening, I had already fallen asleep.

 

When I woke up again, my wounds had been dressed and Cristiano was sitting next to me on my bed. “Hey,” he whispered. “Hey,” I answered and managed a tired smile. “How are you?“ “I feel like shit.“ He laughed and put a steaming bowl into my hand. “I don’t know how you made it out there alive, but your body must be quite resilient,” he said while I tasted a spoonful of soup.

 

I grimaced. “I hate pea soup,” I grumbled, and he laughed again. “I don’t really know how to cook and you have to eat something,” he explained with a serious expression, and I looked at him with a frown. “Alright, I’ll eat IF you explain to me how you did that last night.” He squirmed anxiously on the edge of the bed before giving a hesitant nod. “Alright. I am a vampire.“ I almost spit out the soup. He grinned weakly. “You wanted to know the answer,” he defended himself while I just looked at him incredulously.

 

Well, that would make sense: this aura or charisma he – supposedly – had would explain why everyone was so taken with him, the dark color of his eyes, the supernatural speed and the fact that I was able to fall asleep this quickly after he had done something strange with his eyes yesterday. “Alright,” I simply said and continued to eat my soup. “Alright? No yelling, no doubting me, no running away?” Cristiano looked at me in surprise. I just shrugged my shoulders. “No.“

 

He smiled at me, and I couldn’t help myself but smile back. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. “Good.” He kissed my forehead before standing up. “If you would excuse me, I need to go and eat something. All of that blood yesterday was a little much and... you could try to get some sleep in the meantime?” he proposed and I perked up my eyebrows. “Don’t you want to make me go to sleep?” I mocked with a smile on my face.

 

Cristiano grinned, but his tone of voice was dead serious as he replied. “No, I don’t want to compel you. I only did it so that I could take care of your wounds and to allow you to sleep without pain.” “Oh, I see.” I sank back into my pillows and he smiled. “I’ll see you later, Fábio,“ he whispered, and when he said my name I got goose bumps. What the hell was happening right now?

 

When I woke up this time, Cristiano was back again. He was sitting on the wooden chair in my bedroom, watching me. I only smiled at him and ran my fingers through my hair, still feeling drowsy. “I have a few questions,” I started before he could even say anything. He arched his eyebrows. “Alright? Ask away.“

 

“Why didn‘t you kill me, or why did you save my life?“ He looked a bit surprised at this. I was watching him intently. Ever since he had told me about being a vampire, I couldn’t get that question out of my mind. Now, I was eagerly awaiting his response. “Well, you see… when I came to the pub that evening, I wanted to kill you. Your blood smells so damn sweet, I was really planning to kill you,” he finally responded, and I couldn’t help but pale at his confession.

 

Cristiano, who had noticed this, quickly continued his explanation. “But only for the first ten minutes! When I noticed that you didn’t seem fazed by my ability, I became curious and wanted to know the reason for that. Well, and you were so... different than all the others before you. I wanted to know more about you, and I started to like you.”

 

“What ability?” I asked with a frown. I had quickly regained my composure. “Oh God, how should I explain that? I have a certain appeal to people. I attract them even more than other vampires. Normally, if a human only looks at me, he will do anything I ask of him, but you… nothing. _Nada_. It didn’t seem to work with you, and somehow that’s kind of fascinating.”

 

He smiled and I started biting my lower lip. Yes, that would explain a lot. “And why did you save me in the alley?” I continued. “Because I like you, Fábio. I like you a lot. Maybe even more… I haven’t figured it out yet. I am still trying to, though.“ For a moment, I was left speechless. I hadn’t expected something like that. Before I was able to answer Cris, I had to gather my thoughts. “Cristiano-“ “Cris,” he quickly interrupted. “Please... call me Cris.“ I nodded. “Sure… Cris. So,…“ I stopped again, not quite sure what to say. He smiled at me. “You don’t have to say anything. It’s good enough that you know.”

 

“Maybe you aren’t even that bad,” I mumbled, and he perked up his eyebrows. “Oh really?“ he asked with amusement in his voice. I nodded. “Maybe. But I am also still trying to figure that out.“He let out a quiet laugh before getting up. “Alright. Well, while you think about that I will once again go and... you know. It’s strange, but the longer I am in your presence, the hungrier I get.” He frowned, and I just couldn’t stop my brain from overthinking everything.

 

“Wait!” I finally yelled and Cris, who had almost vanished through the door, turned around in surprise. “Yes?” “Do you want to...can you...well, I don’ know if it helps but do you want to...,” I started, being not quite sure how to say it. “What? Fábio, I may be a vampire but I can’t read minds,” he said in amusement and I took a deep breath.

 

“Do you maybe want to drink from me?” I quietly asked. He froze. “Are you sure?“ He sounded more than uncertain, but I nodded firmly. “Yes. I…trust that you won’t kill me,” I added and within a second he was at my side.

 

I sat up and was at eye level with him. His brown eyes were staring at me with a mixture of hunger, uncertainty and something that I couldn’t place. A shiver ran down my spine, and I carefully reached for his hand – it was cold as ice. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he mumbled. He was staring at my carotid artery, and I gently smiled at him. “You won’t. So, get on with it.”

 

I nodded slowly and pushed me back carefully. “If something is wrong, tell me right away, alright?!” He looked at me intently and I nodded, feeling slightly annoyed. “Good Lord, just do it,” I said and he grinned. Only then I took notice of his pointy fangs. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He started to shower my throat with little kisses, and I closed my eyes. That didn’t feel so bad. His right hand was now gliding over my stomach.

 

Suddenly, I felt his teeth breaking skin and I hissed in pain, but the pain quickly gave way to a feeling of ecstasy, making me moan. Oh God, what the hell was happening here? Now, he started sucking and my right hand grasped his. I squeezed his hand, and his fingers started to draw little circles onto the back of my hand in a gesture clearly meant to calm me down. After two minutes of contemplating the reason for this amazing feeling, Cris stopped drinking. His lips were still glistening with my blood, which he quickly licked off.

 

“Everything alright?” he quietly asked and I nodded wordlessly. That was one of the strangest yet nicest experiences I had ever had. As far as I was concerned, we could repeat that any day. I also told him with a grin on my face. The wound on my throat was still burning slightly but I pushed the pain out of my thoughts. Cris’ brown eyes (that had turned a lot brighter now) were still watching me in concern, although he tried his best to mask his worries with a grin.

 

Without thinking, I carefully sat up and took his face into my hands. When I saw the surprised look on his face, I couldn’t help but smile. Then, I kissed him and time seemed to stand still for a moment.

 

We had been seeing each other for three weeks now, and I was sure that had fallen in love with Cris. This was strange as well as suicidal – he was a vampire after all, and I didn’t usually fall in love that quickly, but it still worked out. I had already decided that I wanted to stay together with him – forever.

 

“I want you to turn me,” I therefore told him when we met up the following evening at my house, and Cris, who was taking off his shoes, froze. “What?” I rolled my eyes. “You heard what I said. I love you, Cris. I want to stay with you, but that only works if I am like you. So do it.“ All of a sudden, he was right in front of me, watching me intently. I no longer flinched when he did that – I had gotten used to it.

 

“Are you sure? That’s a decision which will affect your whole life, Fábio. You wouldn’t be able to turn back. You would have to give everything up for me: your pub, your old life...,” he whispered and I nodded. “I know.” “The transformation is excruciatingly painful, you have to live off blood and kill people in order to survive,” he continued while still watching me carefully.

 

I nodded once again before Cris carefully caressed my cheek. “I know, but you are worth it,” I said softly. Cris sighed once again and bit his bottom lip, and before I knew what was happening, I was on the bed. “Fine.” I stared at him in surprise. I hadn’t expected him to relent that easily. “Fine?” “Yes. I love you too, Fábio, and that’s why I will turn you.”

 

He grinned and suddenly bent over me. “Relax,” he whispered. “This will hurt like nothing has ever before.” I nodded and he caressed my cheek before kissing me again. “Take a deep breath... it will be your last one.” I did as told and took a deep breath. Then his teeth sank into my flesh and I screamed.


	8. Blood

**Fernando’s POV**

Rendered speechless, I stared at Fábio after he had finished his tale. He was still calmly sitting on his chair, smiling in amusement. “Do you regret it?“ I finally asked him in a quiet tone of voice. “Not a single day. Everything I have here, Cris, Sergio, Iker: they are my family. Why would I regret the best thing that has ever happened to me?” He answered calmly and I gulped. He looked so content, so at peace with the world and himself. Well, as ‘at peace’ as you could be with yourself when constantly killing people.

 

“Do you have any old wounds, scars or so?” Fábio suddenly asked me, and I looked at him in confusion. “Yes, why?” “Show me,” he requested and, after hesitating for a moment, I showed him my hand. There was a long scar on my thumb – when I was a child, I fell on some pieces of broken glass. It wasn’t life-threatening but I needed stitches back then. Fábio briefly looked at the scar. Then, he gently traced it with his long fingers. I felt a tingling sensation but it wasn’t unpleasant. The spot where the scar was turned warm, and I watched in amazement how the scar was slowly disappearing.

 

“How do you do that?” I asked him, feeling completely overwhelmed. He just smiled at me. “That’s my special ability. I can heal all kinds of wounds, regardless of their severity. I can’t save someone from certain death, though. I don’t even know. I can feel it; it happens instinctively. Do you want to see something else?” I nodded and he took my hand once again. All of a sudden, he looked rather focused, and then a sharp pain shot through my hand.

 

It felt like my hand was buried under tons of weight, breaking in the process. I gasped in horror. Shit. I bit my tongue and grimaced in pain, barely managing to stifle a scream. Sergio wasn’t too far away, and he would have the Portuguese’s head if he realized what was going on. Fábio ran his fingers over the back of my hand once again and the pain disappeared.

 

“Shit, what was that?!” I asked him in bewilderment and he grinned. “I can heal people, but I can also cause others pain – with just one touch. I am still practicing, though. I only found out about this...,” he thought about it while frowning. “80 years ago, and it can take some time to master your ability. Sergio mastered his ability only 120 years ago as well.” “Cool...,” I mumbled and he grinned.

 

“You… you told me you have… well Cris drank your blood without turning you or killing you?” I carefully asked. Fábio nodded. “Yes. Still, that only worked out because of Cris‘ exceptional self-control.” “Why?” “What do you mean ‘why’?” Fábio gave me a questioning look and I gulped. “Well… why did you offer him to drink from you? I mean… I thought that it hurts quite a lot?” The Portuguese chuckled and started to play with a silver ring on his finger that resembled Sergio’s a lot.

 

“I was curious. To be honest, he wanted my blood from day one anyway. It only hurts for a moment. After that, it’s rather intoxicating – provided the vampire wants it to be that way. We don’t do that when we go hunting; it’s too much of a hassle and you need a few years until you get the hang of it.” I looked at him thoughtfully and took a sip from my glass. All of this still felt scary to me, to be honest.

 

“Do you have any other questions?” Fábio looked at me with a friendly look on his face, and I nodded hesitantly. “Was the transformation really that horrible?” I quietly asked. He became serious before nodding. “It was. Cris, Iker and the others stayed with me during the transformation, but that doesn’t change the fact that you feel as if your insides are on fire.” He smiled faintly and I gulped.

 

“Still, if it meant that I could be with Cris, I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he suddenly added and when I looked into his eyes, I knew that he was dead serious. “And… what about your new life and stuff? Was it difficult to adjust?” Gods, when did I forget how to speak coherently?! However, it seemed as if Fábio knew what I was trying to ask him and he grinned. “To some extent. Before meeting me, Cris had been on his own for a while, but after turning me, he took me back to Iker, José and the others. Iker had just turned Xabi three years prior, so I wasn’t alone. Besides, they took care of me as if I was one of their own.”

 

“But aren’t you-,” I started, but Fábio interrupted almost immediately. “Cris was turned by... someone else and I was turned by him, while the rest of us was bitten by either Iker or José. Theoretically speaking, we aren’t one of them. Practically, we are. To us, they are our brothers and family all the same.” “Oh, okay...,” I didn’t say anything while staring absentmindedly out of the window. In the meantime, Fábio was waiting patiently.

 

“And what should I do now?” I finally asked and he thought about it for a moment. “Well… I can’t make this decision for you, but I can give you some advice. Go with your gut. Then, just wait and see. Sergio can’t turn you anyway because there has been this law since 1780 which forbids vampires younger than 500 years from turning anybody. This means that either Iker, José or Rául would have to do it.” “What? Why?” I looked at the Portuguese in confusion. He just perked his eyebrows up. “Because all three of them are over 500?“

 

“No, I meant: Why is there such a law?” I quickly corrected myself and he grinned. “Oh, I see. Well... on one hand, it is supposed to prevent our numbers from increasing too much and to prevent newborns from turning all their friends; on the other hand, they believe that you only have enough self-control not to kill anyone you want to turn when you are older than 500,” he calmly explained while I was nibbling on my lower lip.

 

“Don’t worry about it. You two will mange,” Fábio suddenly tried to reassure me. Then, after taking a quick look at his watch, he stood up. “It’s about time you go back to Sese. He is worried sick.” He grinned and I followed him. “Okay… and Fábio… thanks.“ I smiled at him while my brain was still trying to process all the information Fábio had given me. The Portuguese smiled, clapped me on the shoulder and winked at me. “Anytime, Nando. I’m sure we will see each other soon.”

 

Then he turned around and vanished from sight. Almost instantly, Sergio was next to me again, giving me a once-over with a concerned expression on his face. “Everything alright?” he asked nervously and I couldn’t hide the smile on my face. “Yeah,” I answered him, felling amused. Sergio smiled before kissing me on the lips. “Good. I need to go home now. We’ll talk about it tomorrow, okay?“ He looked at me apologetically and I nodded, though feeling a bit disappointed. I definitely had some questions, and I needed him to explain some things to me.

 

“So,” I was spreading out on my bed while Sergio gave me a questioning look. “I have a few questions.” “That’s nothing new.” Sergio grinned and I threw a pillow at his face (which he avoided with ease) before continuing. “For starters... Fábio said that it isn’t even possible for you to turn me.” I frowned and Sergio carefully nodded. “That’s true.“

 

“Okay…,” I gulped and he suddenly pulled me into his well-toned arms. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out,” he whispered and pressed a kiss to my hair. “Are you sure?” I sounded quite uncertain and I hated myself for it, but Sergio caressed my hair in a soothing manner and nodded. “Okay… there’s another thing.” I was nervously tapping my fingers while he gave me a questioning look. “Yes?”

 

“Weeeell… Fábio mentioned something he and Cris have done together…” Why did I make this sound so suggestive? Judging from Sergio’s grin, this conversation didn’t go according to plan. I elbowed him in the side. “Not THAT.“ He let out a bark of laughter and I had to grin as well. “No, he... he bit Fábio and drank his blood when Fábio was still human. And he, I mean Fábio, thought that the feeling was amazing. And I was thinking that maybe we could also-“

 

“No!” Sergio rebuked me, and I flinched. “That’s way too dangerous! There’s a 95 percent chance of me killing you in the process,” he added in a more gentle tone. I just rolled my eyes. “The chance of you killing me right now isn’t exactly low either,” I grumbled before cupping his cheeks with my hands and looking deeply into his eyes.

 

“I trust you Sese, okay? I wouldn’t have brought this up if I didn’t. And besides... I know how much you have always wanted to try it.” I smiled faintly and he gulped audibly. “Nando...,” he whispered hoarsely, but I interrupted him with a kiss.

 

Almost instantly, his tongue was in my mouth and he pushed me down on my bed, his hands gliding under my t-shirt while he was on top of me. Sergio showered my throat in kisses before he removed my top and attentively caressed my stomach. “I love your freckles,” he mumbled. Then, he left a trail of kisses leading down to my lower parts. Now, I also removed his t-shirt, and he pulled down my pants along with my boxer shorts. He slowly moved his fingers down my dick, and I couldn’t hold back a moan.

 

Sergio grinned softly and I pulled him into a gentle kiss once again. He rubbed against me and I responded by pulling him even closer. I buried my hands in his hair before I also pulled his pants down past his hips. “I’ve never had sex with a vampire,” I murmured as Sergio stopped the kiss in order to pull a condom from his pants pocket. Now, he let out a quiet laugh before suddenly flipping me over. “Well, then it’s high time we change that, right?” he asked with a husky voice before pushing one finger inside of me without prior warning.  

 

I let out a loud moan. He only grinned and kissed me gently before adding a second finger. “Shit, Sese, just do it already,” I gasped while digging my fingers into the sheets. His grin only grew wider before he put his hand around my penis and started to massage it gently. “You sure?” he asked, and I bit my tongue. Have I mentioned yet that I hate him sometimes?

 

All of a sudden, he pushed inside of me and I let out a moan. In this moment, I took back everything I had previously thought. He gave me some time to get used to him before he slowly started to move. “Oh, come on,” I growled and he gently bit my earlobe (without really using his teeth). I gasped in surprise and heard him laughing. How much self control did this guy have anyway?! “That impatient?“ he asked, sounding amused. Then, he started to speed up. It didn’t take long for both of us to come; I came first, and Sese soon followed.

 

He tied off the condom and threw it into a corner before pulling me into his arms. I was completely worn-out and he smiled before pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I love you,” he suddenly whispered and it warmed the cockles of my heart. “I love you too,” I whispered, and he responded by pulling me even closer to him, so that my head rested on his bare chest. We continued to silently lay there for a while. It felt strange not to hear his heartbeat, and I absent-mindedly traced the tattoos on his arms.

 

“Does your offer still stand?” he suddenly asked and I looked up at him in surprise. His eyes were not quite bright and not quite dark either, and he was looking at me intently. “How come you change your mind so quickly?” I answered him skeptically, and gave me small smile. “I thought about it again… and we should be able to pull it off, shouldn’t we? Well, what do you say?” He looked at me with a questioning look in his eyes and I nodded hesitantly.

 

Sergio smiled. Then, he slid down a bit and started to gently kiss my throat. I closed my eyes, feeling completely relaxed. His right hand gently caressed m cheek. His teeth grazed my skin and goose bumps started to appear on my skin. Then, he sank his teeth into my flesh. I gasped for air and hissed. Shit, that really hurt like hell. Still, the pain was gone the instant he started sucking my blood. I moaned in surprise; it was just like Fábio had described it: intoxicating – like my orgasm from a few minutes ago, or maybe even better.

 

It was over quickly, and Sergio licked the rest of my blood off his lips. I looked at him, feeling completely worn out. He quickly licked the wound with his tongue. Carefully, I tried to touch it as well, recoiling at the feeling of smooth, undamaged skin. “Small amounts of vampire venom are able to heal wounds,” Sergio explained before grasping my hand and gently caressing it. “How are you feeling?” I was still staring at him and didn’t really know what to say to him now.

 

Finally, I pulled his face closer to mine and kissed him softly. My tongue glided over his lips and he parted them a bit to grant me easier access to his mouth. Our kiss didn’t last that long, especially because Sese suddenly broke the kiss and jumped up. “I’ll be right back,” he explained in response to my confused expression, and I sank back into my pillows with a sigh. He really did return within a short while.

 

Not even ten minutes later, he reentered my bedroom with a big tray in his hands. I frowned when he put it onto my bedside table with quite a bit of force and pointed to the various things on it. “Fried liver and a lot of fluids; you are suffering from iron deficiency and we need to fix that,” he explained in a professional tone. I raised my eyebrows. “Liver? Sese, I don’t eat liver,“ I explained to him and he rolled his eyes.

 

“ _Madre mia_ , you humans and your tendency for being picky eaters. You have to eat that; you’ve lost a lot of blood.” I sighed and took a swig from the water bottle before standing up and starting to dress myself. I was feeling a bit dizzy but I wouldn’t ever admit that in front of Sergio. “We can go out to eat something, but I won’t eat liver,” I stubbornly stated and took another swig.

 

Sergio sighed deeply before he stood up and followed me to the door, briefly glancing at the liver. “Fine, but we’ll go and eat some steak. I know an Argentinean restaurant not far from here.” Before I could protest, he had already gripped my hand, and with our fingers intertwined, we left my apartment. Steak. Just wonderful. „“But I won’t eat it rare.“ Sergio only chuckled quietly while we were walking through the streets. It seemed that the restaurant really wasn’t that far away. We wouldn’t walk there if it was.   

 

Just as he was about to answer, three figures came towards us. Two of them seemed familiar to me, and Sergio tensed up immediately. His gaze was fixed onto the three people. They were coming closer and closer, and I recognized Cris and Karim. The third one had blonde hair (which was quite unusual for a Spaniard), was quite tall and had tattoos on his arms, like Sergio. He was wearing a white t-shirt, Armani jeans, and had two silver diamond studs in hears. He grinned. His eyes found mine and I stopped breathing. His eyes were blue and as clear as crystal. They seemed almost unreal and I had a hard time looking away.

 

“Sese, what a surprise,” the blonde started with a grin, and Sergio cast him a dark glance. “What are you guys doing here, Guti?” he growled and I noticed how Guti looked me over with his blue eyes. “Now I know what you meant... his blood really does smell delicious.” He ignored Sergio’s question and grinned faintly. Instinctively, Sese pushed me behind his back. His muscles were tense. A shiver ran down my spine, and I saw how the blonde vampire was looking at me. He looked so… hungry. Karim was once again sporting his predatory grin, and Cris looked rather bored.

 

“Don’t you dare touch him, José,” Sergio hissed in that moment, his left hand tightly grasping my wrist. “Oho, _Gitano_ is defending his territory.” José chuckled and looked at me even more intensely with his blue eyes. Cris was now grinning faintly and I swallowed dryly. Although Cris and Karim didn’t hurt me a few weeks ago, I wasn’t quite so sure at the moment. I saw him kill once – it was completely beyond doubt that he would do it again. Also, there was the thing with Cris’ split personality or whatever it was. Sergio growled and José let out a laugh.

 

“Don’t worry Sese, we don’t plan on hurting _El Ni_ _ño_.” He winked at me and my boyfriend rolled his eyes. “Whatever, we have to go.” He still had a vice-like grip on my wrist and he started to pull until Josés voice stopped us. “You have to be home in three hours, Sese. Iker will kill you if you are late again.” Sergio rolled his eyes and nodded. Then, he quickly pulled me around the next corner.

 

“And that was…“ “Guti.“ “One of those two that could turn me?” “Exactly.“ Sergio let out a deep breath before loosening his grip a bit. “I’m sorry. It’s just… if he finds out that I’ve bitten you, he will kill me,” he then said and I gulped. “Why-“ “Iker and him are the oldest vampires of our clan. Just now... he just wanted to make sure that I hadn’t done something stupid.” “Well, have you?” “Definitely.“ Sergio grinned, his fingers ghosting over my throat. Goosebumps started appearing on my skin. “But he doesn’t have to know, does he?“ I only shook my head and Sergio kissed me on the lips. “Don’t fret. I’m sure there won’t be any problems.“ Oh how wrong he was.

 

Another week had passed. Sergio had drunk from me twice up until now. He had always made sure not to be too thirsty, so that he would be able to stop in time, and I trusted him. But today, it was different – I could already feel it when he entered my apartment. His eyes were dark, a lot darker than normally, and he only smiled faintly before giving me a quick kiss.

 

“Are you alright?” Feeling worried, I pulled him down onto the couch next to me. Sergio only shrugged his shoulders. “Well... there are just some problems with an old vampire.“ He grinned and I kissed him carefully. “Nando... maybe it would be better if I didn’t drink any of your blood. I don’t know if... if I am able to restrain myself today.” His voice was getting more and more quiet, and I softy caressed his cheek. “I trust you, Sese,” I said sternly, my brown eyes staring at his eyes. “I know that you can do it, okay?” “Nando-“

 

I just kissed him and felt how his resistance slowly began to break. He growled. Then, I could feel his lips on my throat, and I gulped. Yes, I trusted him, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t scared of him sometimes. He sank his teeth into my throat and I could barely stifle the scream threatening to leave my mouth. Almost instantly, the intoxicating feeling appeared again, but it lasted longer this time. It also felt... different. This time, I could feel that Sergio wasn’t in control of himself and that his self restraint had already vanished. It was this realization that scared me shitless.

He drank longer, much longer than normally, and I slowly began to feel dizzy. “Sese...“ I murmured, but it seemed as if he didn’t even notice. Shit. Suddenly, I felt really cold. I was getting more and more tired, and I barely managed to keep my eyes open. “Sergio,” I tried to remind him of my state once more. When he finally let go of me, everything went black.


	9. Awake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow AO3 has split up Sergio's name (Sergio's POV). I tried to fix it several times but it always is like this again, so I'll leave it like that for now. I hope this doesn't bother you too much :D

**Serg** **io's POV  
**

 “Shit, Nando!” I stared at my unconscious boyfriend in horror. He was as pale as a corpse, cold as ice and his breathing was goddamn shallow. “Shit, shit, shit!” I cursed. Thank God, his heart was still beating – albeit quite slowly. Desperately, I raked my fingers through my hair. Suddenly, I had an idea: Fábio. If anyone could help me in this situation, it was the Portuguese. I pulled my phone from my pocket in a swift motion and dialed his number.

 

“Yes?” “Shit, Fábio, you need to help me, please, Nando, he... and I… oh my God, can you-,” I stammered out while sinking down onto the bed next to Nando. “Relax; calm down, Sese,” Fábio interrupted me calmly, and I took a deep breath, the smell of Nando’s blood immediately filling my nose. Still, I ignored it. “I’ll be there in five minutes; everything is going to be alright.” He hung up the phone and I gulped heavily.

 

Shit, how could I have been so stupid?! I should never have let him talk me into this ever. My self control wasn’t great – or more specifically, it was only good if I had eaten beforehand. Today, I hadn’t because I had been out with Iker and Alvaro the whole night long. At home, I had only had one of Xabi’s blood whiskeys before heading over to Nando’s place. It wasn’t even remotely enough.

 

“What happened?” All of a sudden, Fábio was standing next to me and I could only pull him into a tight embrace, trying my best not to start crying. “What did you do?“ He asked me in horror. I dug my fingers into his T-shirt while he was carefully pushing me away a bit. He put one hand onto Nando’s chest. “Oh no, don’t tell me you... are you out of your mind, Sergio?!“ Fábio gave me a disconcerted look, and I gulped. “You – Cris – you also-“

 

“That’s an entirely different matter; his self control is almost perfect. You can’t compare our situation to yours! Damn it, Sergio, Iker will kill you when he finds out!” Fábio was still shocked to the core. He was examining Nando worriedly and he kept his hand on Nando’s chest. ”He doesn’t have to know about this, does he?” My voice was barely above a whisper, and the Portuguese started at me as if I had completely lost my mind.

 

“You bet he is going to know about this! Nando is not going to survive – you can bet your bottom dollar on that, and you only have two options: You either let him die, or you tell Iker and Guti the truth, so that one of them can turn him!” Fábio hissed, and I gulped. Shit, shit, shit. That wasn’t going according to plan. At all. “And the longer you think about your decision, the greater the chance is that he will not survive this,“ Fábio added with a grim expression, and I raked my finger through my hair in frustration.

 

“Get Guti and Ángel! I will turn him and I want to make this as pleasant for him as possible,” I said in a serious tone, and Fábio only stared at me in horror. “Sergio, you can’t-“ “Do it!” I growled and glared at him. The Portuguese flinched, and I could see him gulp. “Goddamit Sese, not even you can get away with something like that; you’ll be in a shitload of trouble when-“ “Fábio,” I whispered with a deadly undertone. I was glaring daggers at him. “go and get José and Ángel now, or I will force you to do so. You know very well that I’m capable of that.” “You wouldn’t-“

 

“This is about Nando, of course I would.” I gazed at him with a grim look on my face, and Fábio averted his gaze. “But don’t say that I didn’t try to warn you,” he mumbled before vanishing within the second. I took a deep breath and caressed Nando’s cheek – it was still cold as ice. “I’m so sorry, _querido_ ,” I whispered and kissed him one last time. “For everything. But especially for what I’m going to do next.” I gulped. Then I sank my teeth into his flesh. Nando’s screams made me flinch. It seems as if he had briefly woken up because his heart was beating at a faster pace now.

 

As soon as my vampire blood mingled with his blood, he fell unconscious once again, and I prayed that I didn’t make any mistakes. I didn’t really care about his blood at this stage; my only concern was to get some of my vampire venom into his system as quickly as possible, or else he would die –a thought that chilled me to the bones. I carefully licked his wound – nothing happened. There should be enough venom in his system now, or at least I hoped that was the case. I sank down onto the bed next to Nando and buried my head in my hands, trying my best to keep the tears at bay – in vain. I had managed to kill Nando – Nando, one of the few things in my life I considered to be important.

 

“Sergio Ramos García, don’t tell me you did what I think you did.” The incredulous tone in Guti’s voice made me look up, and I gulped. He was standing beneath the door together with Fábio and Ángel and his blue eyes looked from me to Nando and back in shock. However, he was fuming; I knew him well enough to know that much. “Sergio, you goddamn idiot,” he mumbled before pulling me up from the bed. Almost immediately, I grew even more worried for Nando, and I stared at José in horror. He only shrugged his shoulders.

 

“Don’t look at me like that. You know that you deserve it and I am tempted to yell at you right now, but…” He took a deep breath and gazed at Nando, whose heart beat was getting slower and slower and who looked as if he was in terrible pain despite being unconscious. “Let Iker handle that, we’ll take care of _El Niño_. Fábio, take him to Iker. You would only slow everything down. Ángel, try to get into his subconsciousness.“ Guti let go of me while saying those words and took a seat next to Nando, carefully running his fingers over his cheek. He seemed worried – in contrast to Ángel, whose gaze was fixed on my boyfriend. He looked quite focused. Fábio carefully pulled at my lower arm and  flinched, feeling scared when he started to push me in the direction of the door.

 

“Come on, Sese, you can’t help him now,” he whispered, and I gulped. I didn’t want to go and I especially didn’t want to go to Iker – I knew how angry he would be. Fábio and I ran home – it was easier and slowly but surely I was feeling more and more terrified. I felt as if I went to my own execution – maybe I should talk to Karim about that, he should know how that feels like.

 

“Fábio I... I’m sorry about before,” I started quietly before we arrived at the house, and the Portuguese looked at me in surprise. “Sergio, I-“ “No, I’m serious. You are my brother and my family, and you just wanted to help... I should have listened to you and I’m sorry.” I gulped and Fábio offered a faint smile. “It’s okay, Sese. If it were Cris, I would have probably acted the same way.” He briefly touched my shoulder, and then he stopped. In the meantime, we had arrived at our corridor. “Well then... good luck.” I shot me a sympathetic glance and I nodded silently. 

 

Slowly, I ascended the stairs and made my way to the library. Iker was standing at the window with his arms crossed and his back turned towards me. It was beyond question that he had heard me, and I prudently closed the door before taking a few steps into the room. “Sit.” His voice was devoid any emotion and I could not deduce from it how angry he was. Silently, I obeyed his order and sank down onto the couch. I gulped. Iker’s back was still facing me, which only made feel me more nervous.

 

“Do you remember what I told you several weeks ago, Sergio?” His voice was still devoid emotion and I squirmed on the edge of the couch. “I should not kill Nando, Xavi can’t know about this, and I should not do anything stupid?” I recounted with a quiet voice and I heard him snort.

 

“I only asked three things of you, Sergio, and you managed to fuck up all three of them. Just excellent!”, he  snarled. By now, he had turned around and even a blind man would be able to see that he was seething with rage. Shit. “Well, technically Xavi doesn’t know about it yet,” I carefully supplied, and his brown eyes glinted dangerously. Once again: shit.

 

“UNBELIEVABLE! At least one thing you didn’t fuck up completely!” he yelled and I flinched in fear. “But he will find out, goddammit, because you have broken about 500 vampire laws! Shit, don’t you understand that even I can’t ignore that any longer?!” he cursed. “Do you even once think about the consequences before doing anything?” I silently endured it all – I knew that any protest was futile. After all, I knew that he was right.

 

“Do you even know in how much trouble you are, Sergio?! You and Nando, the both of you could be killed for that!” Iker’s brown eyes glared at me in anger and I gulped audibly. Shit, he was right. In that Moment, Guti chose to enter the library and I flinched at the sound of the door slimming shut. “What’s the situation?” Iker turned to José who only sighed quietly before shooting me a deadly look. I shrunk under his gaze.

 

“His heart has stopped beating and he is turning now. Ángel is with him along with Raul and Fábio. We took him to the empty room next to Xabi’s room,” he explained and Iker nodded. “Good. Can you stay with him until he wakes up?” “Sure.“ José sat down next to me on the couch and I tensed up immediately. Both of them were extremely pissed and being next to them in such a situation was anything but pleasant.

 

“Why didn’t you come to me, goddammit?!” Great, now Guti was yelling too. “I panicked, okay?!” I couldn’t stop myself from saying, and both of them seemed to kill me with their gazes. “What happened, anyway?” José asked me and I took a deep breath before telling them about everything that had happened. Guti’s face turned darker and darker, while Iker’s stayed completely emotionless – years of training had made him a master of the poker face.

 

“ARE YOU COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND, RAMOS?!” Guti yelled. He jumped up and I flinched back – once again. I hadn’t seen him this angry in a very long time. “You know as well as everyone that Cris’ self control is on a whole different level!” “Calm yourself, José, we can’t change what has happened now,” Iker sighed and ran one hand through his hair.

 

“We might be able to fool Xavi and the others into believing that you were the one that changed Nando, but we won’t stand any chance against Blatter. He would have Nando and Sergio executed at the spot, and we wouldn’t even be able to plead for a mitigation of sentence because he has broken too many laws.” Guti nodded slowly and I listened to both of them in horror. Shit. I completely forgot that his whole affair would be discussed in front of the World Vampire Council. _Mierda_. “Well, then it depends on who we give our votes to in a few weeks.” ”Exactly.” Iker reached out for Guti’s glass that was standing on the bureau next to him and took a sip before handing it to Guti.

 

“Well... then Gigi’s our only chance.” Guti was staring at the dark read liquid inside the glass, lost in thoughts. Iker stared at José as if the latter had lost his mind. “Are you mad?! I told you-“ “Oh Iker, stop it, you know as well as I and Sergio that Gigi is the only one that can help us. You can’t sacrifice the life of two family members just because there is trouble in paradise. Get over yourself and sort out whatever problem you have; have some make-up sex and then we have to convince the others to vote for Gigi. You know as well as I do that that’s our only chance,” Jose interrupted Iker quite forcefully, and I gulped.

 

My best friend closed his eyes in resignation and rubbed his temples. “You will be the death of me, seriously...,” he murmured before sighing. “Good. Guti, you stay with Fernando until he wakes up and I will take care of Sergio in the meantime. As soon as Nando is awake, you’ll show him the basics and then we’ll try to convince the rest of the Spanish Vampire Council that Gigi is our best choice. After that, I’ll get in touch with him. We can only hope for the best outcome.” He stood up and nodded at me, and I followed him hesitantly.

 

I realized that José only helped in making me fear what was following even more, but I couldn’t do anything about it now. I deserved it and it was my fault, after all. On our way outside we didn’t encounter any of the others – I didn’t know wherever they were at the moment. I shot Iker a quick glance. “Vervain?“ I quietly asked him and I only closed my eyes at his brief nod. That was going to be one harsh punishment.

 

“You know that I don’t want to do that, but I can’t just yell at you all the time,” Iker responded in an equally quiet tone and he gazed at me briefly before looking me deep into the eyes. “And pray that everything works out as planned, Sese, or else…” He didn’t finish the sentence, but I knew exactly what he was trying to tell me. Or else Nando and I were going to die, and Iker and the others would have a shitload of problems – even more than now.

 

**Fernando's POV  
**

 When I woke up, everything hurt. And when I said ‘everything’ I meant everything. Every single muscle hurt and my throat was burning like hell. I blinked and sat up slowly, my surroundings gradually becoming clearer. But before I could make out where I was, I realized that my wrist had been shackled to the bed and I slowly but surely started to panic.

 

“Relax,” an amused voice announced, and I felt a single finger gently stroking my wrist. I calmed down almost immediately. What the… I speechlessly stared at the person in front of me, but Guti only grinned. He was wearing a white hoodie, black training pants, and his two diamond studs. In general, he looked quite relaxed. “How do you do that?” I whispered. His grin only grew wider. “We have enough time for your questions later, but first you need to answer a few of mine, okay?“

 

I slowly nodded and darted a wary glance at my shackled hand. “We wanted to avoid you panicking and fleeing as a consequence,” Guti, who had followed my gaze, gently explained. “You are safe here.” “Okay...” I had hundreds of questions weighing upon my heart, but there was something about Guti that prevented me from asking. “Well… first of all: your full name?“ “Fernando José Torres Sanz.“ “Date of birth?” “May 20, 1988.“ “That makes you 26 now?“ I nodded and Guti grinned. “Cute, you really are _El Niño._ I bit back my comment since I hadn’t really found out about his intentions yet.

 

“Good... how much do you remember?” You’ve been unconscious for quite some time and we were scared that you wouldn’t wake up at all.” I gulped and ran my free hand through my hair. “Sergio... he drank my blood?” Guti nodded and I bit my lower lip. I was well aware of the fact that what we did was illegal. I was also well aware that Guti wasn’t just some common vampire and that Sergio would probably be in a lot of trouble. “Did... did he turn me or...” I was scared of finishing the question. Guti’s face darkened, which provided me with an answer to my question.

 

“But that wasn’t his fault!” I quickly said and he raised his eyebrows. “And whyever not?” “He... I asked him to bite me, same as a few days prior, although I knew that something was off. He tried to reason with me, but I... was able to convince him.” I lowered my gaze and flinched when Guti suddenly sat down next to me, gently taking hold of my chin and tilting it upwards so that I was forced to look at him.

 

“Nando, listen to me. Sergio has fucked up, and he is aware of it. He is facing the consequences of his actions as we speak. Unfortunately, he involved you as well and now you two are in a lot of trouble. We will explain it to you in detail later on. For now it is important that you quickly learn the basics and that we find out why your blood still smells so damn sweet even though you are a vampire now. But trust me, okay? I know that you are scared, but nobody here will harm you.”

 

Strangle enough, I believed him. Back then, he scared the hell out of me when he was looking at me with such hunger in his eyes, but at the moment, his blue eyes held a gentle expression and I took a deep breath – I paused. I could feel the air passing through my lungs, but strangely enough, that was all. The need to breathe in order to survive was no longer there, and Guti, who had seemingly picked up on that, chuckled quietly. “You should have seen your face just now,” he chuckled before putting a hand on my shoulder. It tingled a bit. “What the hell-“

 

I stopped when a strange sense of tranquility started to pass through my body, and I stared at Guti with my eyes wide. “My special ability,” he explained with a grin before leaning against the wall and crossing his hand behind his head. “That reminds me that we haven’t really introduced ourselves yet. My name is José María Gutierrez Hernández, but Guti or José is fine. Iker and I are the oldest vampires in this house and in the whole of Spain, and I run this place in Iker’s absence.  He winked at me and I gulped. I knew it – he really was not just any vampire.

 

“How old are you?” I asked hesitantly and he laughed. “790 years,“ he then replied and I stared at him in awe. 790 years. _Madre mia_ , what a long time. A really, really long time. “Iker turned me in 1224,“ José added before turning serious once again. “Listen, Fábio will come here soon and we’ll get something to eat from the kitchen. Then, we’ll go outside and we will explain the most important things to you before you meet Iker. We will have a meeting with the rest of the vampire council and well... you’ll have to be there as well, I’m afraid. Gods, I can already hear Xavi’s complaints.”

 

He rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair before pulling a small key from his pants pocket and freeing me from the shackles. I stood up carefully. Everything still felt so... new. Unfamiliar. “How are you feeling?“ Guti’s voice pulled me from my thoughts and I thought about it for a moment. “Strange... My throat feels as if it was on fire and it still stings from time to time.” I didn’t know how I should explain all of this but nevertheless, he seemed to understand what I meant. “Good, the burning sensation is completely normal. It will disappear after you’ve eaten for the first time.”

 

In this moment, the door opened and Fábio entered the room. His face immediately lit up when he laid eyes on me and he seemed relieved. “Oh thank God,” he murmured before pulling me into a brief embrace – almost immediately, the stinging stopped. “Where is Sergio?” I almost didn’t dare to ask the question, but... I missed him and I was really worried about him. Hadn’t Guti just said that Sergio was ‘facing the consequences of his actions’? What were those consequences? “Iker is dealing with him.” Fábio’s voice made me look up and I gulped when I saw the sympathetic look on his face when he was speaking about Sergio.

 

“It’s his damn fault anyway,” Guti growled at that moment and went to the door. “I’m still pissed at him. As is Iker. He should be happy that it’s only vervain.“  Fábio kept silent and we followed José through the door. There was a wide corridor behind it with several doors. It looked like a really huge house. A few staircases and confusing corridors later we ended up in a homey kitchen. I stayed close to Fábio – especially after noticing the two vampires sitting at the kitchen table.

 

I didn’t know any of them. One of them got up and kissed Guti before giving me a friendly smile. The other one was a bit shorter and more slender than Guti and his boyfriend. His build was similar to Fábio’s and he had black hair and brown eyes. He was smiling at me shyly. “Nando, that’s my boyfriend Rául and that’s Ángel,“ Guti introduced them and I smiled. Both of them didn’t really look dangerous and I managed a quick “Hey” before Fábio pushed me down on the bench next to Ángel.

 

“Ángel really is an angel. He made sure that you didn’t suffer from any hallucinations during your transformation – he is also harmless.” Guti grinned while Raul rolled his eyes and Ángel laughed quietly. “I wouldn’t exactly say harmless, or have you forgotten your last nightmare, José?” he asked in amusement and Guti’s face darkened almost instantly. “I only wanted to test how well you can control your ability now,” he grumbled before handing me a glass filled with a deep red liquid.

 

“Drink. You’ll get some more later, but for now...” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Our schedule is extremely tight.” I carefully raised the glass to my lips, aware of four pair of eyes watching my every move. “Go on,” Raul encouraged me and I smiled at him warmly. I gulped before taking a sip. It tasted surprisingly delicious and I downed the whole glass in one gulp before putting it down on the table. It was... it was hard to describe the taste. It tasted a bit sweet and it mitigated the burning sensation in my throat, although it didn’t erase it completely.

 

“Very good.” Guti looked content and turned towards Ángel, who had been watching me with a knowing smile. “Do you know where Karim and Marcelo are? Not that I’m worried; both of them are old enough to make their own decisions, but I’m still responsible for them and I know very well that Iker will make a fuss if I don’t even know where they are,” he said and Ángel thought about it. Raul smiled in amusement. “As far as I know, Marcelo went hunting with Luka and Alvaro, and Karim... wasn’t he with Cris?”

 

He shot Fábio a questioning glance, but the latter only shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, but I think that I saw him upstairs with Cris some time ago,” Ángel concluded. Only now did I notice why his accent seemed familiar to me: he was Argentinean.  Guti groaned audibly. “Just great. Doesn’t matter, that’s enough of an explanation.“ He winked at me and gave Raul another kiss before turning to me once again. “A word of well-meant advice: Never turn anyone; that’s just too stressful.” “José!” Fábio smiled at Raul’s reproachful tone.

 

“It was your own decision,” he replied in an amused tone of voice and Guti snorted. “How could I have known that Iker would take this whole ‘you are responsible for them’-thing so serious?” “Don’t be like that, you know that you care about the both of them,” Raul said with the hint of a smile on his face, and José grinned. “Of course, they belong with me, after all.” I was watching all of this in silence; they really were like a real family. If one saw them acting like that, they wouldn’t believe that those same guys killed people.

 

“Iker is coming,” Raul suddenly said and I involuntarily tensed up. “Don’t worry, he won’t eat you,” Guti whispered into my ear and I gulped. After all I had heard about him, I wouldn’t be so sure...  "… he’s practically a saint. I’m serious. Compared to Guti or... me; he is less… cruel?“ Sergio’s voice suddenly rang through my head and I forced myself to calm down a bit. Iker was his best friend. He couldn’t be that bad.

 

In that moment, the kitchen door opened and two people entered. One of them I didn’t know – I guessed that said person must be Iker. The other one – and had never been that happy to see him – was Sergio. He looked quite exhausted, but upon seeing me, his face broke into a smile. However, he didn’t say anything and I briefly glanced at Iker: brown hair and some three-day stubble. He was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, and his brown eyes seemed exceptionally gentle. All in all, he didn’t really look dangerous, but he had that kind of aura that made people respect him automatically.

 

“Good evening, boys,” he said and smiled before sinking onto the bench next to Raul. Raul and José only grinned while Fábio and Ángel nodded in greeting and smiled back at him. They looked a bit... well, not afraid, but full of respect. Well, it seemed that I wasn’t the only one. “Iker,” Guti nodded at him as well. Sergio was still standing at the door.  “You must be Fernando, then…“ It wasn’t a question. Iker was looking at me thoughtfully and I gulped. His gaze was so intense that it felt as if he was looking deep into my very soul.

 

“Nando... I am Iker Casillas, leader of the Blancos Clan and _presidente_ of the Spanish Vampire Council, and – for reasons that are sometimes beyond me– Sergio’s best friend.” He rubbed his temples and I could see Sese grin in the background. I still didn’t dare to say anything. Iker seemed to notice because he suddenly gave me a warm and welcoming smile. “For heaven’s sake, relax _Niño_ , no one will harm you here. You are part of my family now and my guys don’t bite – well at least they don’t bite other vampires,” he self-corrected quickly. I couldn’t help to grin at those words. 

 

“That’s more like it. So, where was I? Oh yes. We’ll meet the rest of the members of the Spanish Vampire Council and I only have one very important favor to ask. Please, if they were to ask you a few things, it is important that you answer them honestly. Though they don’t have Karim’s ability, they still sense if you are lying to them. Stay close to me, José, Sergio, Raul and Cris, and don’t let them get to you. Nothing will happen to you.  Without my orders, they won’t do anything other than talk big. Do you understand?” Iker stared at me intently and I quickly nodded.

 

“Good.” Iker smiled. Then, he nodded at Sergio, who was looking at me almost longingly. “Good Lord, Sese, just go to him already. You are insufferable,“ he then grumbled and as soon as he had finished the sentence, I felt myself being engulfed in Sese’s strong arms. “Gods, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Nando. I should never have bitten you that day. I’m so sorry. I’m so glad that you are alright…,“ he mumbled again and again before drawing me into a long kiss and I felt the same thing I always felt while kissing him: the feeling of coming home. Only Guti’s insinuating whistle made us jump back, and if I had been physically able to, I would have blushed deeply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A sidenote from breathxx ... she made Fernando four years younger than he acutally is.


End file.
